Cleveland Browns Head Coach Kevin Stefanski will miss wild-card game due to COVID-19

(Image credit: Jason Miller/Getty Images)

published 5 January 2021

The Cleveland Browns' good feeling over their first playoff appearance in 18 years — the NFL's longest such drought — was dampened on Tuesday, with Head Coach Kevin Stefanski among five in the organization to test positive for COVID-19, the team announced.

Stefanski will be replaced by special teams coach Mike Priefer, and could return to in-person team activities in 10 days — which might not matter if they lose on Sunday to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Stefanski is asymptomatic and will work from home to help prepare for the game, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

Stefanski will be the NFL's second head coach to miss a game due to COVID-19, following the Detroit Lions' Darrell Bevell, who missed a December game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But that was a meaningless late-season contest, in contrast to the Browns' long-awaited first postseason game since 2002. With Tuesday's positive tests, Cleveland will enter Pittsburgh with eight of its players and six of its coaches out due to COVID-19.

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Jacob Lambert is the art director of TheWeek.com. He was previously an editor at MAD magazine, and has written and illustrated for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Weekly, and The Millions.

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