NFL officially reschedules Eagles-Washington Week 15 game to Tuesday night

The Week 15 game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Football Team will no longer be held as originally scheduled on Sunday, December 19 at 1:00 PM Eastern. The NFL officially announced the game is being moved to Tuesday, December 21 at 7:00 PM Eastern.

League statement:

We have made these schedule changes based on medical advice and after discussion with the NFLPA as we are seeing a new, highly transmissible form of the virus this week resulting in a substantial increase in cases across the league. We continue to make decisions in consultation with medical experts to ensure the health and safety of the NFL community.

Two other games were moved with 1) the Las Vegas Raiders and Cleveland Browns now playing on Monday instead of Saturday and 2) the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams now also playing on Tuesday instead of Sunday.

That this all is happening isn’t totally shocking given the sudden and dramatic increase of positive COVID-19 cases in the NFL.

In the Eagles’ case, though, they have ample reason to be furious about this rescheduling. They’re being punished for their opponent having a breakout that seemingly stemmed from a staunchly unvaccinated player in Montez Sweat.

Washington didn’t have a single player on their reserve/COVID list in the regular season until Sweat went on it on December 8. Another player went on two days later. Then two more a day after that. And it went from there until it reached over 20 players on their COVID list.

The Eagles, who clearly have done a better job of managing their COVID situation, should’ve been able to play the game as scheduled. Instead, now their opponent undeservedly gets more time to get players back. Although that isn’t even necessarily guaranteed if they don’t test out of the COVID protocol before Tuesday.

And now the Eagles will be at a disadvantage moving forward because they’ll presumably have to play the New York Giants in Week 16 coming off short rest from a Tuesday game. Even if you want to argue that’s not a big deal because it’s just the Giants ... well, 1) the Eagles already LOST to that team and 2) it’s still forcing the Eagles to play three division games in the span of just 13 days. The short rest could take a toll when they play Washington again in Week 17.

It’s bullshit. And the Eagles shouldn’t merely go along with this reschedule without publicly voicing their displeasure (AT THE VERY LEAST) about the situation.

UPDATE: Team statement below.

Eagles players weigh in: