As Major League Baseball grapples with it’s first major COVID-19 outbreak, football season is looking dicier.
The NHL and NBA both appear ready to resume in bubbles, but with games scheduled in home cities, the NFL is modeling itself MLB. It took three days for 13 Miami Marlins to test positive for coronavirus.
Before that news broke Monday morning, Jason McCourty had already expressed concern about the NFL season on his “Double Coverage” podcast.
“I’m not going to lie, for me as a fellow player, I go on social media and it makes me very nervous to think there will be a season,” McCourty said Sunday night. “Because I’ve seen guys posting a video in a nightclub, and it’s just like, ‘Yo, we’re attempting to play football. That’s not going to be OK.’
“You see guys working out in one city on a Monday, working out in another city on a Tuesday, and another city the next week, and it’s just like, ‘Dang, if they’re working out here, here and here, that means you have to be traveling and you come across however many people.’ Or you see a guy posting pictures and there’s hundreds of (people), whether it’s anywhere. So for me, it is nerve-wracking.
“Those are the things that for me, make it nervous to say, ‘Are we going to be able to have an entire season?’ Because of small things like that that go a long way. It only takes one person testing positive, you come into the building, and that thing will spread like wildfire.”
That’s exactly what’s happened to the Marlins, and their home opener Monday night has been cancelled accordingly.
The NFL is still moving forward as scheduled though. Rookies and quarterbacks are expected to report to the Gillette Stadium facility for testing Monday, with veterans arriving Tuesday for the official start of training camp.
Bill Belichick began cutting his roster down over the weekend, trimming 10 players to bring it to 80 men:
J’Mar Smith
Brian Lewerke.
CB Lenzy Pipkins
WR Isaiah Zuber
WR Sean Riley
WR Will Hastings
S Malik Gant
S Adarius Pickett
LB Kyahva Tezino
LB Courtney Wallace
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- New England Patriots cut J’Mar Smith, Brian Lewerke, seven others to trim roster to 80 players (report)