Danger: Football Players Opting Out?
It is really interesting to see NFL Players opting out of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 virus. Simply because football is such a dangerous game, in it of itself, and that danger didn’t seem to bother them before. The constant hard-hitting causes concussions, broken bones, amongst a plethora of other injuries. Those risks were well-known, yet the games went on.
However, this danger in the virus appears to scare them along with the rest of society. So threatening that not playing, and losing a lot of money, is the choice made. There isn’t going to be a season if the players aren’t willing to put on that helmet and compete. That’s what it’s starting to look like with announcements of refusals to play coming on the daily.
Inside linebacker Dont’a Hightower opted out of the 2020 season. That is not the first member of the New England Patriots to opt-out, either. What if players on the Browns start dropping out? Well, two players just did on Wednesday in G Drew Forbes, their 6th-round pick from last year, and undrafted OT Drake Dorbeck. Not superstars but that could affect the outcome of a season that has such an abundance of potential for Cleveland.
Hopefully, the NFL is able to put it all together. Even so, it just won’t be the same when many of the players that would be starting on the various teams across the league are sitting at home eating popcorn.
Unfortunately, the MLB is already seeing major problems after just a few games. Many members of the Miami Marlins have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Games were canceled because of that occurrence. So maybe football players have a point, regardless of the game’s inherently violent play? After all, the contact between the players in football is much more than, say, baseball.
There is still plenty of time before the football season begins. Enough time where this virus may be brought under control with a vaccine or some other measure. However, the chance of the 2020 NFL Season being played in full is certainly not 100%. That would be incredibly disappointing.
