Kovacevic: So, it's Tuesday now? Really? Better have that NFL forfeit policy handy

OK, let's try this one more time.

But no more times after that.

Come Tuesday, 8 p.m., now that the NFL has yet again inconvenienced the Steelers and yet again coddled the protocol-breaking Ravens by pushing their game back a second time, if there isn't a football flying over Heinz Field, then Roger Goodell will face the choice of dragging Baltimore across the finish line by pushing this to the made-up Week 18 -- and within that, automatically creating an additional AFC playoff spot -- or by forcing the Ravens to forfeit.

Yeah, I said it. One more time. One last time.

Forfeit.

F-O-R-F-E-I-T.

So many seem to get so squeamish at the mere mention of the term. I'm not sure I understand why exactly, but that's been the broader reaction every time I've publicly broached the subject of forfeits for a couple months now in the context of the league's ultimate threat aimed at all 32 teams complying with coronavirus protocol. It's as if I'm advocating for a team's mass execution or something.

It's one game. It's a punishment against one team.

Also, it's one very real concept, contrary to a common misperception. The forfeit is listed right there in the NFL rule book, explicitly using the exact word and even applying the official 2-0 score that would accompany one. On top of that, on Oct. 5, Goodell wrote the following within a memo that was issued to all 32 teams: "Protocol violations that result in virus spread requiring adjustments to the schedule or otherwise impacting other teams will result in additional financial and competitive discipline, including the adjustment or loss of draft choices or even the forfeit of a game."

Is it a possibility?

I mean, it's right there in black and white. And Goodell's absolutely empowered to enforce it. So scratch that off the oft-spoken list of reasons why it couldn't occur.

Now, will he do it?

Heck, I don't know. 

The most relevant question, thus, is this: Should he?

Ask me, and I'll answer that John Harbaugh and others in Baltimore are making that call an awful lot easier than it ought to be. Presuming most folks have spent this Thanksgiving weekend feasting with friends and family, I'll break it down with a handful of bullets:

1. The Ravens' daily barrage of positive tests this week now has a dozen players -- plus coaches and staffers -- on the NFL's COVID-19 List, including their top two running backs and three starting defensive linemen. The biggest headline of all hit late Thursday night with the reporting that Lamar Jackson, the league's reigning MVP, also has tested positive, and he'd be joined by three more Friday afternoon.

2. On Wednesday evening, the Ravens put out this press release:

And by Thursday evening, the name of that strength and conditioning coach, Steve Saunders, became known through various media outlets. As did reporting that Saunders had been working without a mask in the Ravens' weight room, in addition to failing to let the team know he'd been experiencing coronavirus symptoms.

Meathead.

That's the meathead football mentality I've been warning about for weeks now.

But what mattered most about the press release was that it represented the Ravens acknowledging culpability -- and some resultant action -- on their part. It was an admission of guilt.

3. The strength and conditioning coach of any football team might be the very last individual anyone would want being contagious, never mind careless on top of that. He or she deals hands-on with nearly all of the athletes, as everyone's got to pass through the weight room at one point or other through the day.

But, at the same time, the strength and conditioning coach would also then be the one with the most eyes upon him or her. Think about it. Players, coaches, even head coaches -- Mike Tomlin's a regular visitor to the Steelers' weight room on the South Side -- interact with the person constantly.

By extension, it doesn't take much imagination to conceive that Harbaugh, his staff and countless Baltimore players saw Saunders working without a mask and did nothing. Which will be indefensible, if that emerges.

4. Moreover, it'd mimic the general culture issue that brought down the Titans' facility two months ago in Nashville, if one recalls. Mike Vrabel visibly couldn't have cared less, based on his press conferences at the time, and it later emerged that players had been given scant instruction toward how to conduct themselves.

Once the NFL investigates what's all gone awry with the Ravens -- and there's no doubt they will, given the rabidity with which Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive VP, attacked that assignment in Nashville -- and it turns out Harbaugh and his team were similarly guilty, they'll be facing a whole different context for punishment. 

I'll repeat: That Goodell memo went out Oct. 5, after the Titans' mess was cleaned up. Everyone was expected to adhere to the stricter standards. This is the first big outbreak since the memo. It's on its own island for judgment.

5. This one bugs me the most: Harbaugh's been gaming the system.

How do I know?

After the Jackson news hit Wednesday night, two football reporters with national outlets, ESPN's Adam Schefter and Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, engaged in the following back-and-forth on Twitter, all occurring within a half-hour ...

Schefter: Baltimore players were told today by John Harbaugh they won't be allowed to re-enter their practice facility in Owings Mills, Md., until Monday at the earliest. The Steelers and Ravens are scheduled to play Sunday, so that now doesn't seem possible.

Florio: Per source, ESPN report is premature at best, incorrect at worst.

Schefter: Harbaugh just confirmed to ESPN that he told the team tonight that players will not be allowed to go into the training facility until Monday at the earliest.

Florio: Let’s try this another way. Per source, this isn’t Harbaugh’s call to make. Decisions have not yet been made.

Ouch.

See what's happening there?

Harbaugh, obviously Schefter's source for both tweets and not just the second one, was making a unilateral call on the Ravens' facility being closed, even though all such decisions are now the domain of the NFL. And someone in the league office, obviously Florio's source for both of his own tweets, wasn't about to put up with any of that.

Why would Harbaugh want to leak out something so seemingly hollow?

Appears simple from this perspective: He aimed to make the Ravens' situation sound too dire to play the game Sunday, while also avoiding saying so directly and looking like he's either lobbying or, far worse, fearful of the Steelers. And by going this route, at least in his head, he's applying pressure on the league office to move the game because ... my goodness, if the practice facility is closed until Monday, what monster would dare play a game Sunday?

Lo and behold, by Friday afternoon, coincidentally or not, Harbaugh got his way.

That's who he is. That's what I'd been anticipating, in some form, all along.

This can't be rewarded. Not in any way.

I'll repeat from my Thanksgiving column that forecast much of what's now transpired: This isn't about the Steelers.

For starters, as we saw Friday afternoon, they aren't immune to this thing, either, with Stephon Tuitt, Isaiah Buggs and Jerald Hawkins all being added onto their own COVID-19 list. The battle's real, and the battle's everywhere.

They'll be fine either way. They're 10-0, and they've now ascended well past the Ravens, healthy or not. They'd beat them now, or they'd beat them in Week 18. And even though they're now in the uncomfortable spot of having a short week for Washington next Sunday -- while the opponent played Thanksgiving and will have 10 days of recovery -- that remains a 4-7 NFC East team. Everyone's been fussing about a bye week ever since the real one was lost, but it isn't that big a deal. Tomlin can navigate ways to get his key players rest over the final six weeks.

No, this isn't about the Steelers. It's about the Ravens. This is about not rewarding them for this behavior, first involving the strength and conditioning coach and now Harbaugh callously working the media to jockey for playoff position. Which, by the way, is precisely what he's doing even as his players, coaches, staffers and maybe their families and friends are being diagnosed with a serious condition.

Remember, if this game were to get pushed back to the mythical Week 18, per the recent meeting of the NFL's Competition Committee, the Steelers would lose their only other chance at a bye because, one, it'd be that week and, two, the playoff field then automatically expands from seven to eight in each conference.

Know which team would be eighth if the season ended today?

Yep. Harbaugh's.

Tell that guy to find 48 players, dress them up in purple, and be ready to perform. 

This is little different than three weeks ago, when the 49ers, facing a similar shortage, were instructed by the league office -- without a trace of sympathy -- to find enough players to play. They did so, and they got their brains beaten in, predictably, by the Packers. The same Goodell memo I've been citing also made clear that games would not be postponed because of player availability issues. That, the memo said, is why practice squads were expanded to 16 players. And why even players on injured reserve could be called back in extreme circumstances.

The lone variable to be used in determining if a game is postponed, it went on, is if the medical people deem that the virus is continuing to spread. Believe it or not, that's not known to be the case with the Ravens. New positive tests don't necessarily mean additional spread. They might just mean that's when the test is catching up with the correct diagnosis.

It goes without saying, safety comes first. If the Ravens are deemed unsafe, keep them out of here.

Then stick them with the L they've richly earned.