Cleveland Browns Sacked By Flu Bug

Swine flu has been getting a lot of publicity these days. And when almost a dozen members of the Cleveland Browns—Jerome Harrison, Alex Mack, Anthony Madison, Brodney Pool, Shaun Rogers, Robert Royal, Chansi Stuckey, Jason Trusnik, Lawrence Vickers, Corey Williams, Kamerion Wimbley—came down with some sort of influenza this week, it prompted me to ask the National Football League if they had a policy on the infamous H1N1 virus.

I sent an email to VP of Corporate Communications Brian McCarthy and he told me all NFL clubs received the following memo from Commissioner Roger Goodell:

“If a club has at least six players unable to participate as the result of confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu, it can receive roster exemptions for those players and promote players from its own practice squad to replace them. A club can receive a max of eight such exemptions. They must be medically confirmed cases of swine flu. This procedure does not apply to any other type of flu or illness. There is a deadline for promoting practice squad players pursuant to these procedures at four hours prior to kickoff.”

He also said the rationale for the policy was to try to anticipate potential issues. This policy, which was discussed with the Competition Committee, was implemented in the event an outbreak of H1N1 materially affected a club’s roster. As with all issues of player health and safety, medical considerations must and will have priority over competitive concerns.