The Chicago Bears suffered a brutal blow to their defense with nose tackle Eddie Goldman choosing to opt out of the 2020 season due to health and safety concerns amid COVID-19. New Bears safety Jordan Lucas also chose to opt out.
While the Bears only had two players that ultimately chose to forgo the 2020 season, they were close to losing another valuable member of their defense.
Inside linebacker Danny Trevathan told reporters that he considered opting out of the 2020 season due to health concerns with his family as his fiancée and his children have asthma.
“I was definitely concerned about the virus,” Trevathan said Friday, via the team’s website. “I definitely took some hard thought about the whole situation. My fiancée? That’s like my backbone. She has chronic asthma and allergies that are crazy. So I really thought about her and all the sacrifices she made. I took it into consideration just because of her and her sacrifice and how important family is and how important she is to me.”
Ultimately, Trevathan decided not to opt out after he saw what safety measures the Bears had implemented at Halas Hall. Following a massive expansion last year, the Bears were able to make sure high-traffic areas like the cafeteria, locker room, training room, weight room and meeting rooms met the guidelines of social distancing.
“I had to see it firsthand, so I came in and I feel like they did a pretty good job handling the situation,” Trevathan said. “You know, this thing is so wild. It’s the first year I’ve ever seen something like this, anybody’s seen something like this, so it definitely made me nervous a little bit. But I feel like I made the right decision.”
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