Buccaneers MRSA cases didn’t originate in facility, according to report

There is "substantial evidence" that separate strains of MRSA -- commonly known as staph -- were brought into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers facility from the outside, according to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network. Rapoport, citing a source, confirms that the expert, Dr. Deverick Anderson from Duke, found that there is no evidence that the MRSA infections came from the Buccaneers facility.

While "from the outside" sounds somewhat sinister, it cold mean a number of things. At face value, it seems to imply that Lawrence Tynes, Carl Nicks and Johnthan Banks all contracted staph elsewhere or from each other after one of them contracted it elsewhere. The point is that there is nothing inherent in the Buccaneers organization that seemed to directly promote the contraction of staph.

The NFL and NFLPA released a joint statement on Saturday confirming that there is no risk that the Buccaneers and Banks, the most recently player to contract staph, would infect the Philadelphia Eagles, the team's Week 6 opponent. There was some talk about the game potentially being postponed had the findings shown otherwise.