Here we go again, another season ruined by the Covid pandemic
Bruce Arians is known for his jovial, carefree nature. “No risk it, no biscuit.” But don’t think the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers runs a loose ship. Once the 2020 season began, he had no tolerance for players or staff violating Covid protocols, and that had much to do with the team winning the NFL championship.
“He did an unbelievable job keeping this thing together during Covid,” quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen told the Tampa Bay Times. “He didn’t compromise, and it ended up being one of our huge advantages. We didn’t have any dips because of Covid, largely because of him. He dog-cussed them if he thought there was any slack whatsoever in letting down our guard. He snapped the team back to attention.”
The Bucs had only two incidents of Covid-19 causing players to miss games. Running back Ronald Jones did not play against Atlanta and Detroit, and linebacker Devin White was out for the season finale with Atlanta and the first playoff game at Washington.
Covid clouded the entire season. You never knew whom it would strike and when. Some players were pulled from the field during warmups. The Broncos’ entire 4-man quarterbacks room was infected. They had to start wide receiver Kendall Hinton at quarterback for a game against the New Orleans Saints.
The bad news is that Covid, which was receding during the spring as a majority of Americans were vaccinated against it, is back with a Delta variant vengeance.
Even some vaccinated players have been infected. The Dallas Cowboys, who play Tampa Bay in Thursday night’s season opener, will be without All-Pro guard Zack Martin, who was vaccinated but suffered loss of taste and smell this week and had mild flu-like symptoms. The Buccaneers in all their vigilance have placed four players on Reserve/Covid despite the full vaccination status.
The much-publicized “breakthroughs” fed into an unfortunate narrative broadcasted by Fox News that vaccinations don’t matter, that they’re foisted off on the public to make billions of dollars for the medical industry or to be part of a conspiratorial global identification system.
Never mind that the Centers for Disease Control insists that unvaccinated people are seven times more likely to contract the virus than those who take the vaccine. Never mind that Donald Trump, who has always downplayed the Covid risk, publicly urged his followers to “get vaccinated,” as he himself has done.
The problem now is that the vaccines are considered by many to be ineffective and by many others to be foolproof. Wrong on both counts. So this football season begins with stadiums polarized but crowded to near capacity.
There was a time when Tom Brady, Buccaneers quarterback, seemed oblivious to Covid risk. He practiced football in close contact with his new teammates prior to last season.
Brady was equally oblivious when he celebrated his seventh Lombardi Trophy. He was very socially undistanced in his yacht parading on the Tampa River, and he became infected.
He has since been vaccinated. He’s on board with Arians, but he does not feel entirely safe. Which is a good thing. In an interview with the local newspaper, the quarterback who’s famous for commitment to health and longevity said, “I actually think Covid is going to play more of a factor this year than last year, just because of what we’re doing now and what the stadium is going to look like and what the travel is going to look like and all the people in the building and the fans.
“It’s not like last year, although we’re getting tested like last year. Guys are going to be out at different points, and we’ve just got to deal with it.”
The Bucs joined the Atlanta Falcons as the only NFL teams to be 100% vaccinated. Everywhere else there are holdouts, most notably Cole Beasley in Buffalo, Kirk Cousins in Minnesota, Carson Wentz in Indianapolis, and Lamar Jackson in Baltimore.
Jackson missed time last season with Covid – along with 20 other people in the Ravens’ organization. Jackson was reinfected in training camp, resulting in his missing eight days of practice. You’d think that would be enough evidence, but when he returned, he said he still wasn’t sure he’d get vaccinated: “I’m going to talk to my team to see how they feel about it; I’m going to talk to doctors.”
I have yet to hear of any doctors discouraging vaccination. But there are still millions of Americans who’d rather trust the medical expertise of Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity. When the former President Trump called for his supporters to get vaccinated, the crowd booed him. Bruce Arians and the Buccaneers might have thought that ship has sailed, but incredibly enough it has not.
