Opinion: With Denver QB fiasco, NFL refusing to acknowledge reality of COVID

There is determination in the face of adversity and then there is sheer stupidity.

Right now, the NFL is going all in on the latter.

The Baltimore Ravens put six more players on the reserve-COVID-19 list Saturday and another two Sunday, leaving them with 36 active players. The San Francisco 49ers are homeless after Santa Clara County banned all contact sports for the next three weeks. And the Denver Broncos called up a wide receiver from the practice squad to play quarterback against the New Orleans Saints because they had no others available – yes, you read that right, none – after Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles were found to have had “high-risk” contact with Jeff Driskel, who tested positive for COVID on Thursday.

Yet the NFL is continuing to pretend that it’s business as usual, insisting that the games be played.

After almost 15 years of being near-obsessive about protecting his beloved shield, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell decides now is the time to say the hell with the integrity of the game?

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 “I’m not one to complain, but NFL y’all can’t possibly send us into a game without a QB. The most important position to a offense. We don’t even got a back up,” Broncos tight end Noah Fant said on Twitter on Saturday night.

Goodell warned the league before the season started that there would be competitive disadvantages. That some teams would face worse circumstances than others. But there is a big difference between having your bye week snatched away from you at the last minute and the clown show in Denver.

This goes beyond the Broncos having no chance of winning the game. By refusing to make any concessions to reality, the NFL is essentially putting its finger on the scale in the race for the No. 1 seed in the NFC and, perhaps, the conference’s spot in the Super Bowl.

The Saints currently lead the Los Angeles Rams and Green Bay Packers by a game. Now, maybe New Orleans beats a full-strength Denver, anyway. But we’ll never know for sure because the Broncos will be fielding the equivalent of a junior high offense.

If the Saints do end up as the No. 1 seed – the only one that gets a first-round a bye this year, remember – it’ll be with an asterisk. Should they make it all the way to Tampa Bay, site of this year’s Super Bowl, there will be plenty who will look at them sidewise and say, “Yes, but …” while pointing to Sunday’s game.

And if the Saints win, their second Super Bowl title will always be seen as something of a sham – through no fault of their own.

It also shows the farce of the NFL claiming to care about "player safety."

Kendall Hinton, Denver's sacrificial lamb, hasn't had meaningful reps as a quarterback since 2017 and was out of the league a month ago. But the Broncos are throwing him out there, with no preparation, against a defense that's tied for fourth in the NFL in sacks. There is no part of that that can be considered safe.    

Is this really what the NFL wants? To degrade its own product? To take the hard work that’s been done by so many people throughout the league just to get this far and make a joke of it? To get players hurt? 

Because that’s what the NFL is doing by pretending it can still outwit COVID.

Making it through a full season in the midst of a pandemic was always going to be a crapshoot. Doing it in the traditional 17-week window all but impossible. The NFL can’t play in a bubble and, as cases surged throughout the country, it was inevitable that it was going to wreak havoc on the league, as well.

Yes, some teams have been less responsible than others, and it’s possible the NFL is trying to make an example of them. The Broncos’ quarterbacks weren’t wearing masks as they should have been. The Ravens’ strength and conditioning coach didn’t report his COVID symptoms, and reportedly was inconsistent in wearing both his mask and the tracking device required by the league.

But the NFL hasn’t been perfect, either.

It let the New England Patriots fly to Kansas City and play the Chiefs last month after Cam Newton tested positive, knowing full well that some of the players had had close contact with the quarterback. Sure enough, cornerback Stephon Gilmore tested positive the morning after the game.

The point is not to prove who’s right. Or to be able to say a virus that has killed almost 270,000 Americans didn’t get the best of the NFL. 

The goal – the only goal – is to finish the season.

Right now, the best way to accomplish that is by hitting pause. Or, at the very least, eliminating that open week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl and having a Week 18 to make up whatever games are necessary.

The NFL season is teetering on the brink. But, sure, let the NFL go ahead and keep pretending it's got everything under control. See how well that works out.  

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.