I don't have a link, but CBS news is reporting live right now that this Sunday's Browns-Packers has been postponed because too many Cleveland players are sick with the flu. According to the radio, the game will be rescheduled at a date to be determined later. Has anyone else heard anything about this?

I'll believe it when I see it.

PFT is reporting they're scaling back practice, but that's a long call from canceling an entire NFL game. Short of one team or the other having ebola, I can't see the league incurring the sort of trouble that canceling a game would cause because a few guys are sick.

Under no circumstances would this happen.

Does not say the game is cancelled, but sounds like a lot of Browns are sick....

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/...eveland-browns/

Don't see how could a make up game be fit into the schedule? Still don't want any GB players getting exposed and sick, and a bye week heading into the Minny game could be a real advantage for the pack.

Yeah, this sounds strange to me. I don't think I've ever heard of that before, but the announcer on CBS's national hourly broadcast clearly said that the game will be rescheduled. This can't be the way they'd handle it, though, would it?

Only thing I see at CBS.com is a headline stating
that the # of swine flu cases is overrated.

Go Pack!!

There is no way they would reschdule. So both teams would get a free bye week? Thats unfair to the other 30 teams

ESPN doesn't have it, and I'm sure they'd be all over it. This can't be right.

I think there's still time for the team to get the H1N1 vaccination and have it be effective. If I were on the Packers training staff, I'd be on the phone right now.

Not to mention the two teams who had to reschedule - when are they going to make the game up? Are they going to play two games in one week in December? This can't be right. I'll be listening to their bottom-of-the-hour update in 10 minutes, and see if they either have any more details or if they back off of it.

The game will almost surely be played this weekend. I just wonder if surgical masks can be worn as part of the NFL uniform.

A little bit more serious though can GB send a disinfection crew to the visitors locker room in advance? CLE has had Staph problems in the past, and Mangini seems kinda crazy. Would he consider germ warfare?

This does make me wonder if teams 'encourage' their players to get flu shots... Given the number of college programs who've had problems with it so far this year, you'd think it would make good sense to do so.

I mean, college is a petri dish generally, but I imagine playing football is a perfect vector for something like the flu.

Here is the only report from CBS

Browns coach Eric Mangini contacted the league about stipulations if his sick players can’t return in time for Sunday’s game. He said roster exemptions exist in which practice squad players can be promoted without having to release someone. League rules state, however, that the exemptions are only in the cases of confirmed swine flu.

So in the cases of confirmed H1N! they will allow for roster exemptions.

The game is on...with the Packers already having a bye...not many rescheduling options.

Thanks Bruce, good find.

Let's say Cleveland had 30 guys that couldn't play. Why wouldn't that just be a forfeit??? I don't see why re-scheduling would evn be an option.

If Cleveland can't field a team because of sickness, then it should be a forfeit. If a team has a freak rash of hammy pulls and can't field their team, it wouldn't be rescheduled for them - the flu shouldn't be any different.

I agree but not sure if the league would view this as a threat to both teams and also anyone who comes in contact with them.

Do the Browns even have a practice squad? I thought that was already the team they feild on sundays???

I hope its not. I already got tickets and my friend is flying in this weekend to go. They could expect significant complaints and lawsuits both from fans who dumped money on things they can't use (flights, hotels, ...) and from business for the loss of revenue. I see absolutely no way they postpone the game shy of a natrual disaster (think huricane ike last year with houston and baltimore).

There simply isn't a rescheduling option that is viable. The Packers have already had their bye. The only possible option would be during that stretch after Thanksgiving in which the Packers have nearly a week and a half between games. I just don't see it happening though.

I'm quite certain there will be a game one way or another. Mangini's probably just playing mind games.


I suppose when we win this one by 3 TDs, the TT and MM haters will try to poo poo this one, too.

I suppose best case scenario would be if the Browns said, instead of fielding a short roster in a game we probably won't win, we'll forfeit, and the packers get a win for the week, and they get the benefits of a bye week.

I'm sure the Bears and Vikings fans would LOVE that.

I'm sure the tv networks would LOVE that just as much

Browns NT Rogers, five other starters sidelined by flu

nfl.com

How many Browns will still get a sack on Rodgers, even with the flu?

I sure hope they don't cancel the game... I paid for my airfare and have tix for the game...

Just watched local news and nothing was said of rescheduling. They say that the Browns have 11 players listed on the injury report with flu like symptoms. I am a custodian at a high school in the fieldhouse and yesterday I found out I have H1N1. I really feel like crap and couldn't imagine playing football.

I've been washing my hands like a surgeon all flu season. I hate being sick, and everyone I know who's caught the flu this year has been absolutely floored by it.

I hear you. Good luck, man. I was out in California during the April-May swine flu outbreak, hiking in Big Sur and sightseeing in San Francisco, and I caught the flu. I was told it was almost certainly swine flu, because the nurse said almost every new case they were seeing in San Fran at that time was swine flu, but they didn't test me because the system was just so overloaded with people in higher risk groups.

But let me tell you, if that was swine flu, those people who are saying it's no worse than the ordinary flu are people who have never had it, because I was sicker then hell for 2 weeks. I'm 52 years old as of this past Sunday, so I've had a lot of cases of the flu, and there've only been 2, maybe 3 times in my life I can recall being that sick. It was the first time in my life that I truly, fully understood not only how people can be so sick with the flu they can die from it, but how you can be so sick that it doesn't even seem all that important whether you do or not. It's not that you want to die - it's just that you're so sick, you don't really get how important it is that you might. It was a real eye-opener. I just hope to god it really was swine flu, because if it was, I probably won't get it this fall. And if it wasn't, I may, and I don't even want to think about the possibility of being even sicker than I was this spring. I think I know how you feel, and the best thing I can tell you is there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is, you're probably not going to die. The bad news? You're probably not going to die.

As for the OP, it's obvious by now that the game isn't being rescheduled. I'm sorry if I sounded like Chicken Little, but when we heard it (and 3 of us heard it all at the same time), we were dumfounded, and I really wanted to know if anyone else had heard anything about it. Like a lot of you, I just can't imagine the NFL really doing that unless the outbreak becomes so severe they want to keep people from congregating in large crowds, like the NHL did during the Spanish flu pandemic back in 1918. So the reason we were so shocked when we heard it was because for all 3 of us, our first reaction was "wait a minute - how friggin' bad has this flu gotten since the last newscast we heard? what's going on here?" We were stunned, and i figured if there was anyplace that would be likely to have breaking news regarding something affecting a Packer game, this would be the place. Sorry if it alarmed anyone.

It really is no different then the common flu (in terms of effects).

The difference being, your body has no natural immunity towards it.

Therefore, an older or younger person may sometimes have more trouble fighting it off. That's why sometimes it's more severe then the common flu.

I know it is kicking my butt!! My whole family all stayed home today so I imagine they have it too. It kind of reminds me of when I had pneumonia (sp?) Thanks for the well wishes Thirteen!!

Dear lord, I sure as heck don't want the guys to go to Cleveland and have starters come down with this awful flu right before the Big Showdown! What can they do to keep our guys from getting sick? Surgical masks?

I would say if your sick, you sta home. That's about it.

Hand sanitizer in the huddle and make the Brown players cough into the crook of their elbow or else face a 15 yrd penalty.

LMAO, yeah you forgot they can't take off their helmets so that may not be effective

Screw the Browns, my concern is the Packers getting it from the Browns during the game. Players tackling, sweating on each other a week before Minnesota.

Make 'em wear the old single bar face masks.