The St. Louis Rams canceled Thursday’s practice at Rams Park due to confirmed cases of swine flu. Players were seen driving out of Rams Park at about 11:30 a.m. on Thursday. All players visited with team medical officials before being sent home.
“Yesterday we had a couple of guys come through that had sickness and flu-like symptoms and we sent them home,” coach Steve Spagnuolo said Thursday at a hastily called news conference at Rams Park. “We had a few more of them this morning. They went over to the doctor and we got some of those guys out of here.
“After that, I was advised by the doctors somewhere in the morning that . . .it might be best just to get everybody away from each other. It’s really more of a precaution than anything else. So we’ve done that. We’ve sent all the guys home. They’ve all visited, each one of them, with the trainers. Not all of them, obviously, are sick but we’re checking everybody. And we’re just being careful.”
Although he wouldn’t name names, Spagnuolo said “five or six” players could have swine flue. And he said it’s possible more could show up to work Thursday with swine flu.
Two players, quarterback Kyle Boller and center Jason Brown, missed practice Wednesday due what at the time were undetermined illnesses. On Thursday, Spagnuolo indicated they both had swine flu symptoms. Brown was back at Rams Park on Thursday and Spagnuolo said Brown seemed fine. Things were so hectic Thursday morning, Spagnuolo said he wasn’t aware if Boller was in the building or not.
