By Bob Condotta | The Seattle Times
Worries about a COVID-19 outbreak with the Las Vegas Raiders resulted in the NFL deciding Thursday to move the Seahawks’ game Sunday at Arizona to the Sunday night prime-time slot on NBC.
Seahawks-Cardinals kickoff, which had been scheduled for 1:05 p.m., will now be at 5:20 p.m.
The Raiders-Tampa Bay game had been scheduled for the 5:20 p.m. slot but will instead move to the 1:05 p.m. time slot on FOX.
The Raiders’ entire starting offensive line as well as safety Johnathan Abram have not been at practice the last two days after tackle Trent Brown tested positive for COVID-19 with the other players deemed as potentially being at high risk. All were reportedly placed on the league’s COVID-19 reserve list Thursday.
Moving the Raiders game to Sunday afternoon gives the league added flexibility if that game needs to be moved to Monday or Tuesday.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, the NFL said the decisions “were made out of an abundance of caution.”
The game will be the third for the Seahawks already in prime time this year, following earlier Sunday night games against the Patriots and Vikings. Seattle had already been scheduled for the maximum number of five prime-time games prior to flex scheduling, and are scheduled to also host Arizona on a Thursday night on Nov. 19 and play at Philadelphia on Monday night, Nov. 30.
