In early August, three months before a coronavirus outbreak that would deplete his roster, sicken one of his top players and call into question a staff member’s conduct, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he couldn’t imagine many places safer than the team’s facility.
”You want to rank them, we are in the top five, I’ll tell you that, across the country,” he said Aug. 7, more than a week before the start of padded practices in Owings Mills. “So we’re right up there with anybody. We get tested every day, and we are wearing masks everywhere.”
For nearly three months, Harbaugh was right: Amid a pandemic, football was a haven.