Jason McCourty Expresses Doubt That NFL Can Play Season Amid Pandemic
BOSTON (CBS) -- If you have your doubts about the NFL's ability to play a full season during a pandemic, you're not alone. While the suits making the calls seem to think that a football season can go off without many hitches, NFL players aren't as confident.
That much was clear as New England Patriots cornerback Jason McCourty aired out some concerns on his "Double Coverage" podcast Sunday -- and some very valid concerns at that. Based on what he has seen his NFL brethren posting on social media, McCourty isn't so sure there will be a 2020 season.
"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," Jason told his brother, Patriots safety Devin McCourty. "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.'"
McCourty also voiced his distress with players posting photos of themselves in large groups, calling it "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?'" he wondered. "It only takes one person testing positive. They come into the building, and that thing will spread like wildfire."
Those are some rational issues voiced by the Patriots veteran, and he shared those before Monday's news that over a dozen members of the Miami Marlins tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend -- MLB's first weekend back.
With NFL training camps set to open later this week (Patriots players will undergo COVID-19 testing on Monday and Tuesday before camp opens Friday), players don't sound very confident that they'll be able to keep the virus from hitting their respective locker rooms -- and that they'll be able to play a full season in 2020.
