The Las Vegas Raiders have been fined $500,000, coach Jon Gruden fined $150,000 and the franchise has been stripped of a 2021 sixth-round draft pick for COVID-19 violations related to offensive tackle Trent Brown's positive test back in late October, according to Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson.
The escalated fines and the loss of a draft pick are the results of the Raiders being a repeat offender of the NFL's COVID-19 policy. Back in Week 2, Gruden was fined $100,000 by the league for failing to appropriately wear a face covering during the team's victory over the Saints. The Raiders were fined an additional $250,000.
Las Vegas has now lost more than $1.2 million for NFL COVID-related fines, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. The Raiders have been fined $350,000 for a mask violation, $165,000 for mask-less players at a fundraiser, $50,000 for an unauthorized locker room visitor, and $650,000 for Brown's situation.
Brown was hospitalized after suffering a mishap with an IV prior to the Raiders' 16-6 victory over the Browns last Sunday. Brown, who was taken to a hospital before the start of the game, had air enter his bloodstream and it required immediate medical attention, according to NFL Network's Ian Rappoport and Tom Pelissero. Brown, who recently came off of the team's reserve-COVID-19 list, tested positive for the virus less than three weeks ago.
"We're just going to say that he got ill here in the locker room and he's being evaluated right now," Gruden said of Brown after the game, via ESPN's Paul Gutierrez. "We'll update you as soon as we know something. But I'm told everything is OK. We were expecting Trent to play today; he had a great practice on Friday."
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr described what it was like seeing Brown taken to the hospital prior to kickoff.
"All of a sudden, we come in and they're wheeling him out and I'm like, 'Bro, what is going on?' It was crazy and so we prayed," Carr said. "As a team we prayed for him, we made sure he was OK, his family, because I'm sure they were scared to death."
"We could write a pretty good book in just my seven years here," Carr added. "There's been some crazy stuff that has happened. And today was another one of those things."
Prior to Thursday night's fine, the Titans held the league's highest COVID-19 related fine when they were docked $350,000 by the league last month after Tennessee had a total of 24 members of the organization test positive for the virus.
