Sixty-six NFL players chose to opt out of the 2020 season over concerns regarding COVID-19. For the two thousand or so who will play on- not to mention the coaches, staff members, and other essential personnel that make up each team- trying to do their job and play this game amidst a global pandemic while following proper safety protocols will be a daily, even hourly, endeavor.
One Cowboys legend is imploring those players to take that responsibility seriously. The coronavirus is a formidable opponent capable of blindsiding anyone, even someone who’s doing everything right. Darren Woodson knows from personal experience. The Ring of Honor safety is now recovering from his own battle with COVID-19, a fight that knocked him flat with frightening speed and power.
When asked if he would rather face COVID-19 again or have to tackle Barry Sanders in the open field, Woodson didn’t hesitate.
“Barry. Any day.”
The five-time Pro Bowler, the last Cowboys player from the 1990s dynasty to retire, says he and his family had been taking all the recommended precautions.
“We did everything to prepare ourselves for COVID,” Woodson told WFAA-TV this week. “We isolated ourselves. We basically quarantined ourselves.”
But then Woodson’s wife Tiffany had to travel to Houston on business. A coworker she was with there had COVID-19, unbeknownst to her at the time.
“My wife had zero symptoms at all,” Woodson explained. “Went to the doctor, tested positive, still without any symptoms.”
So the three-time Super Bowl champ took himself and his two sons to get tested. All tested negative.
“And then, all of a sudden, five hours later after a negative test, I have the chills, 102-degree temperature, had all the COVID symptoms.”
Five hours later… after a negative test.
And for the franchise tackles leader who made a 13-year career out of punishing ballcarriers, this invisible foe laid him out.
“Like I was in a car crash. My body was achy. Sore. Back, legs, hard to get out of bed for a day.”
Or, as he described it to Nick Eatman on the team website, “It felt like, at my age, at 51 years old, that I played a game. A full game and got 90 reps. And waking up the next morning, that’s what it felt like. I could barely move.”
.@darrenwoodson28 discusses his recent bout with the coronavirus, the challenges these players are facing off the field, plus his outlook on the #DallasCowboys’ chances in 2020.
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) July 31, 2020
The coronavirus took more than just a physical toll on Woodson.
“It affected me more mentally than physically after the first couple days,” he admitted, “because I just didn’t know when I was going to get back to myself.”
After ten days, Woodson did feel like himself again. His wife never showed symptoms at all. His sons, only a fever. And it’s that unpredictable nature of COVID-19 and how any given person might or might not respond that he says should make embarking on an NFL season such a sobering proposition for today’s players.
In June, Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott was one of the first NFL players to be diagnosed with COVID-19. Taking precautions then was fairly simple; Elliott reported during a self-isolated Twitch game of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare that he felt “one or two days where I felt symptoms, and even then it wasn’t too bad.”
But for players now fully assembled as squads- practicing and meeting and working in close contact with each other every day- following proper distancing and hygenic procedures will be a constant challenge. Doing the right things away from their heavily-monitored team facilities will be exponentially harder.
“I would approach it this way,” says NFL insider Jay Glazer in The Athletic. “Tell your team, ‘If I told you if you went out in public, and as a result, you had a realistic chance you could get a two-week ankle sprain, all of you would think it’s a no-brainer to stay home. Let’s look at COVID the same way. If you go out, there’s a legit shot you could be lost for a couple weeks. So let’s just stay away from everyone else.'”
That’s not an option for guys with families, as Woodson’s case illustrates. And it’s why the four-time All-Pro hopes players take the virus seriously and follow all the recommended guidelines, whether with their teammates or away from them.
“When I leave this house, it’s not about me. It’s about you. It’s about everyone else,” Woodson says.”Guys can’t go out. Things are different. Young veterans can’t go out on the street or into a bar. They are going to have to take precautions going into the season.”
Woodson says if he had been faced with the decision of whether to suit up in the current situation, he would probably play. But he knows that the choice is up to each individual player, and it may well come down to more than just the player.
“Individually,” he told Eatman, “you have to look at yourself and say, ‘Am I willing to take on the risk of walking into a room of 53 players and someone getting COVID and now we’re all exposed to it? And then I’m taking that back to the house: my wife, maybe my mom lives with me who may be 60 years old and above. There’s so many risks that are inherent. And being around so may players, you have to be willing to take that risk.”
Woodson didn’t sign up for that risk. But he got clobbered by the coronavirus anyway. And he knows not everyone who does battle with this opponent simply gets up and walks back to the huddle.
“I got it, and it was one thing. I know a lot of friends that have come down with COVID that didn’t see the next day. That’s where my heart is.”
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