Covid-19 has kept NFL players away from the team, but it hasn’t stopped Jason McCourty from showing up to Gillette Stadium.
There are no secret tunnels, and head coach Bill Belichick is not handing him a secret pass card or doing anything the NFL would investigate.
The veteran cornerback’s off-season groin surgery requires rehabilitation, so even with Covid-19 restrictions, he’s been allowed to be in the building as part of his recovery. With no OTAs, or organised team activities, there aren’t lots of people around, which would be weird if it weren’t right now.
“What constitutes as weird has dramatically changed throughout the last few months,” McCourty said. “We’ve been in it so long, this has become rather normal to us at this point.”
Football players aren’t exempt from the quarantine life, so McCourty’s been spending plenty of time at home with his wife and three kids as treatment has gone on. As sports have slowly been reintroduced to TV, McCourty has limited his viewing to old NBA games and the eSports specials. As for live pro sports, he’s not a soccer fan and doesn’t like golf, but did see a clip of Tom Brady’s wardrobe malfunction after McCourty’s former teammate had holed out for eagle during last weekend’s made-for-TV golf special with Peyton Manning, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.
“I was happy to see he split his pants,” McCourty said with a laugh. “The next time I see him, I’ll have to give him a hard time for that.”
Barring a trade, McCourty won’t see Brady at Gillette until 2021. He should see all of his teammates, as well as coaches and staff, before then. According to a report by Yahoo’s Charles Robinson, coaches may be able to resume in-house work next week and minicamps could start by June 15.
It sounds as easy as players grabbing pads and getting right back on the field, but the players are actually living, breathing humans that can be affected by Covid-19. “Moving forward, I think we all have fears,” McCourty said. “For me, the fear of going back to work is no different than the fear of walking into a restaurant and sitting down to have dinner. This is something we’re all going to have to deal with. At some point, we’re going to start back up.”
The decision to get back on the field is going to be a personal one. McCourty and teammates prepare for everything as far as football goes. They understand the risks involved in trying to make a big hit in the middle of the field or playing through an injury.
Coming back with Covid concerns is now a part of the equation where the decision is just as personal.
“As players, we’re going to go through the same fears a lot of other people in our country are going to go through,” McCourty said. “You have to figure it out the best way, and when they tell us to come back to work, we have to, as individuals, make sure, ‘Hey, to my standard, hey, I feel like this is safe enough, I’m ready to commit to it, I’m ready to do it. If not, you have to go about whatever you feel is best for your family.’ “
A proposal to eliminate onside kicks in favour of an untimed, fourth-and-15 play was a popular talking point on NFL Twitter this week. While the Patriots are known for dancing around such a topic, McCourty stomped all over this one.
“If I’m a team and I’ve earned the right to be up, we’ve made the plays necessary to be winning in the fourth quarter or whatever it might be, I have a chance to go seal the game … just by catching an onside kick vs. being our there for a fourth-and-15,” McCourty said. “From that standpoint, I don’t really understand it. We’re now basically rewarding you for being behind. That’s the only thing for me that’s a negative.”
McCourty acknowledged the entertainment aspect of the NFL and that a fourth-and-15 option is more intriguing, and he stayed very on brand about what would happen if the rule passes.
“We have no control over it,” McCourty said. “If they vote yes, we’ll be out there preparing situationally how to stop fourth-and-15 with the game on the line.”
New England Patriots cornerback Jason McCourty. (TNS)
