Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly ties coronavirus outbreak to pregame meal, vomiting player
Notre Dame will resume team practices Wednesday after reporting 18 positive coronavirus tests on Monday, but the program has changed the way it will eat its pregame meals and will now have rapid antigen tests available on the sideline because of lessons learned from their outbreak, coach Brian Kelly told ESPN on Tuesday.
Kelly said team doctors determined that the outbreak, which resulted in 25 players in isolation and 14 others in quarantine, stemmed from two events surrounding the Sept. 19 game against South Florida: eating their pregame meal together, and one player who threw up on the sideline during the game and was treated for dehydration.
Kelly said the change in routine from summer camp to game week revealed new challenges that could have only been discovered with the start of the season.
"Throughout our entire time together, we had not had one meal where we sat down together," Kelly said. "Everything was grab and go. We get into our game situation where we have pregame meal together, and that cost us. Big. We had somebody who was asymptomatic, and it spread like wildfire throughout our meeting area where we were eating and then it got guys in contact tracing."
Kelly said the team will now eat its pregame meals at a convention center that has large ballrooms where it's easier for the players to stay at least 6 feet apart and not have any face-to-face contact. Kelly said he has to wear a microphone to be heard in such a large space.
"It's a reality we're living with," Kelly said, "and if you want to play football, you've got to make some adjustments along the way."
The player who threw up during the South Florida game didn't have a concussion or any other injuries, Kelly said, so the medical staff treated him for dehydration. The player then tested positive Monday, Kelly said.
"In trying to discern the difference between somebody who may be dehydrated in a game and having the effects of COVID on the sideline, [it] becomes very tricky," Kelly said. "Just being vigilant and understanding that this thing can hide in so many different areas make it a tricky proposition, even if you're doing all of the right things.
"We have to think about giving antigen tests on the sidelines for stuff that we never thought of," Kelly said. "That's the kind of shifting sands in this whole thing, learning in-game what do you do, what don't you do. We test Friday nights, too, so you're hoping your PCR test is getting that, but it's still a 50-50 proposition if you're cooking over that time, so there's still a little bit of uncertainty."
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