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Stafford 'glad' NFL adjusted COVID-19 protocols after false positive

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Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford is pleased that the NFL is adjusting its coronavirus protocols after he was wrongly placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list last week.

Stafford was forced to sit out due to a false-positive test. The Lions later confirmed that the signal-caller never contracted COVID-19.

"This is just totally unknown times for all of us," Stafford said Tuesday, according to Kevin Patra of NFL.com. "The league, the players, coaches, the organization as a whole. Everything is new, and it's unknown. I know everybody is doing the best that they possibly can. I'm glad it happened to me at this point, and the league is doing what they can to try and change it and make sure this doesn't happen again."

However, Stafford acknowledges that this won't be the last issue the league will face amid the pandemic.

"I'm sure there is going to be another problem down the road at some point that we're going to have to figure out when we get there. That's the way this has been for the past six months," he said. "We've all been living it. Whether it's the league trying to test thousands of players or just trying to go out and get our groceries. We understand that things are going to change and we're going to have to adapt."

The NFL will conduct two more tests for an asymptomatic person who tests positive as part of the league's changes to its COVID-19 testing protocols, according to ESPN's Kevin Seifert.

Stafford was the first starting quarterback to hit the COVID-19 list. The Jacksonville Jaguars recently placed second-year signal-caller Gardner Minshew on the list and removed him two days later.

The NFL's reserve/COVID-19 list is for players who either test positive for COVID-19 or are quarantining after close contact with an infected person.

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