Michael and Stanley were able to keep Bob Vance from Vance Refrigeration from cutting the line on Pretzel Day. On Monday, folks in New York had no such luck when several NFL officials showed up for COVID testing and secured dibs.
According to Jake Offenhartz of Gothamist.com, multiple NFL officials received preferential placement at a Manhattan facility of BioReference Laboratories. The move, per the report, sparked "outrage" among "100 or so" who had waited in the cold for their own tests.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy admitted to Offenhartz via email that five members of the NFL's football operations department secured expedited COVID tests "in anticipation of working closely together in the office at the league headquarters for [Monday night's] doubleheader."
The league office has a direct pipeline to all game sites, in order to assist with certain calls and to make replay-review decisions. Presumably, the goal was to get the employees in position before kickoff of Raiders-Browns at 5:00 p.m. ET.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul generally objects.
"We are going to ensure that we get the message out to any of the providers of this that there is no skipping of line, I don't care what your job is," Hochul said during a press conference Wednesday, via Offenhartz. "That's inappropriate and I don't want anyone to be discouraged when they're waiting in lines. I thank the people who are getting tested. They're doing the right thing. We want to make sure that everyone is treated equally in the process."
In July 2020, the NFL stressed that it would not impact local testing resources during the widespread, daily testing of NFL players, coaches, and officials. Obviously, that wasn't the case on Monday.
But it's hard to blame BioReference. The company's bread has been buttered thickly and repeatedly by the NFL. It surely has no problem with giving such a good customer preferred status. It will take others to compel BioReference to respect the etiquette of first-come, first-served.
NFL officials cut COVID test line in New York on Monday, to the dismay of others originally appeared on Pro Football Talk