Associated Press

NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills says the Carolina Panthers’ COVID-19 transmission was linked back “to some gathering of players outside the team facility” during the team’s bye week.

The Panthers placed eight players on the COVID-19/reserve list on Monday, forcing the team to close its facility for two days.

The NFL has worked with the club and the players involved and Sills said he thinks there will be improvement with repeated messaging about what players should and shouldn’t be doing away from the team’s facility.

Carolina reported no additional positive tests on Wednesday and eligible players returned to practice.

The Panthers potentially face fines and a loss of a draft pick. The Las Vegas Raiders were fined $500,000, coach Jon Gruden was docked $150,000 and the team lost a sixth-round pick for its COVID-19 protocol violations in about a month ago following a repeat offense.

On the other hand, Pete Carroll and the  Seattle Seahawks have figured out a way to make a competition out of keeping COVID-19 from entering team facilities and potentially derailing a promising season.

“It’s an ongoing awareness that we try to maintain,” Carroll said. “You know, it’s not unlike us to try to figure out a competition and everything, so we figured one out.”

Until last weekend, the Seahawks had been the only team in the NFL not to put a player on the NFL’s reserve/COVID-19 list. Defensive tackle Bryan Mone became the first to be placed on the list last Saturday, but Carroll said earlier this week that was only a precaution and Mone had not tested positive for the virus.