The NBA has a set up in Orlando at Disney’s Wide World of Sports that is commonly referred to as “The Bubble” which is a zone designed to keep players as well as coaches and staff members isolated from the COVID-19 pandemic while finishing their 2019 season. The rules and regulations within
“The Bubble” have been rigid, to say the least.
The NFL doesn’t have a similar strategy. They’re holding the normal individual team training camps with an umbrella protocol and precautions set up for each team. When practices come to a close, players are allowed to go home which puts added pressure on players to be cautious.
Coach Andy Reid stated that it will be up to the players to do the right things after they leave the building. A few veteran Chiefs players spoke on what that means and how to keep players accountable.
“It’s accountability,” All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce said. “The guys coming in this office, they know what this team is capable of. It shows in what we did last year and who all we have coming back, which means we have just about every single leader that we had in this locker room—outside of two that respectively decided to opt-out. I think we’re as set and ready leadership-wise as we’ve ever been.”
“The tone has to be set and the accountability has to be set amongst all the guys in the locker room that there’s a virus out here, it’s not something we can play around with, it’s something that we have to take seriously”, Kelce continued, “Guys are going home to their families. We have kids and wives and beautiful families that we have to make sure that we’re all being held accountable for. So, like Coach Reid said, just making sure that you’re doing the right things for the guys around you. But I don’t see much of a problem because a lot of that is already set in the culture that Coach Reid and the leaders on this team have set.”
Six-year NFL linebacker Anthony Hitchens shared similar sentiments.
“We just tell the young guys just be smart,” Hitchens said. “It’s just not about you, it’s about the team. A lot of us have families and wives and kids and if you go out and do something you’re not supposed to, it can affect other people’s families.
“We have a lot of good people here. (Brett) Veach and Coach Reid have been doing a really good job getting good guys here, so I got all the confidence in the world everybody will go home and be smart and just ready to work locked in six to seven more months straight, and let’s play hard and let’s play safe.”
Right tackle Mitchell Schwartz spoke to the seriousness of the current situation and the importance of self-discipline during training camp.
“I think that the biggest thing is going through the meetings and seeing the steps that have to happen if a guy does get COVID-19, all of a sudden all of the people that he’s been around need to quarantine for a certain amount of time,” Schwartz said. “One guy testing positive could have this huge spill off where a certain amount of people then has to go away for five days. There are always steps in the process where you realize that one single test can have an effect on our football team for multiple weeks, especially once we get into the season.”
“It’s not just, ‘Oh, I have it. I have to sit out for two weeks. It’ll be okay.’ It’s, ‘I have it and these other people could be affected, and now it’s this debilitating thing,’” Schwartz continued. “Kind of like we saw with the Miami Marlins where one person had it and then a whole team gets it. I think we all realize how important it is. It’s going to take a lot of self-discipline to make sure we’re doing the right thing away from the building.”
It is clear that leadership plays a major role in the Chiefs’ locker room and the fact that they are the defending Super Bowl champions with repeat aspirations will keep players in the right frame of mind. This is an offseason unlike any that has preceded so goal-setting and adhering to the protocols set forth for camps are vital which are being taken seriously by the players and staff.
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