COVID-19 is staging a comeback across the globe. In Frisco, it’s attacking the Cowboys secondary especially hard.
Just a day after safeties Malik Hooker and Israel Mukuamu were added to the team’s COVID/Reserve list, Damontae Kazee has been told by the club to stay away from the facilities pending further COVID evaluation. Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News first reported the development on Tuesday, and added that Donovan Wilson was escorted off the field by a Cowboys trainer at the start of the day’s practice session.
That’s four players from the position group that was arguably the Cowboys’ biggest Achilles heel last season.
The news comes just hours after team owner Jerry Jones went on Dallas radio and emphasized the importance of vaccinations among his players, coaches, and team staffers.
“Everyone has a right to make their own decisions regarding their health and their body. I believe in that completely, until your decision as to yourself impacts negatively many others,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan, as per USA Today’s Jori Epstein. “Then the common good takes over.”
During a Tuesday Q&A session with the media, head coach Mike McCarthy said that the Cowboys would not be adding any players to the COVID list that already includes Hooker, Mukuamu, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, defensive tackle Carlos Watkins, and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
Yet Kazee had been told to stay away, and Wilson was then pulled from the practice field.
Cowboys instructed S Damontae Kazee to stay away from facility today while awaiting further COVID-19 evaluation, source said. Mike McCarthy indicated before practice that a player is under the retest phase.
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) August 24, 2021
The team had moved to virtual participation Sunday and Monday, with secondary coach Joe Whitt Jr. running through the defense’s practice script on Tuesday. Some teamwide meetings have been canceled to reduce numbers; practice took place on the outdoor fields at The Star.
As Epstein notes of the individuals on the list:
“NFL policy stipulates that a vaccinated person who tests positive for COVID-19 must isolate until they have tested negative on consecutive PCR tests, 24 hours apart. Should the person develop COVID-19 symptoms, they must also be asymptomatic for 48 hours. An unvaccinated person must isolate for 10 days after testing positive. A vaccinated person exposed to COVID-19 in close contact must test negative for eight days but can be present if asymptomatic. An unvaccinated player exposed to COVID-19 as a high-risk close contact must remain isolated for five days regardless of test status.”
On Saturday, the Cowboys declared that 93% of the team’s players were at least partially vaccinated. Among coaches, that number was 100%.
“We’re just being cautious and want to make sure we contain this outbreak and just be smart with that,” McCarthy said earlier this week. “We all have clear understanding what the state of what we’re in. We’re by no means clear of what went on last year.”
Things became even less clear for the Cowboys- and especially their secondary- on Tuesday with the news regarding Kazee and Wilson.
“I’m arm-waving here, but that has everything to do with the way I look at our team, the Cowboys, or the way I look at our society,” Jones said of vaccinations on-air Tuesday. “We have got to check ‘I’ at the door and go forward with ‘we.’ Your Dallas Cowboys are doing that.”
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