Here are our winners and losers from today’s game.
In another tale of two halves, the Panthers fell to 3-7 on the season after suffering a devastating 46-23 defeat to Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.
Here are our winners and losers from today’s game.
Winner: WR D.J. Moore
The Panthers have the most productive 1-2-3 combination at wide receiver in the NFL, but today it was D.J. Moore’s time to shine. Moore made some chunk plays against Tampa’s defense, turning four catches into 96 yards and a touchdown.
Loser: Third quarter issues (again)
It was all going well… until it wasn’t. In just a couple of minutes in the third quarter, the Bucs got a 98-yard rushing touchdown and an interception by Jason Pierre-Paul that led to a 21-yard field goal. Over the full 15 minutes, Carolina could only muster 34 total yards, go 0/2 on third-down and put up zero points on the scoreboard. Through 10 games, the Panthers are averaging just 2.4 third-quarter points.
Winner: LB Shaq Thompson
Thompson was one of a few bright spots in an overall embarrassing defensive performance by Carolina. He kicked things off with a ‘peanut punch’ forced fumble on Tampa’s first drive of the game, setting the Panthers up to take a 7-0 lead with Bridgewater’s touchdown pass to tight end Colin Thompson. By the end of the game, Thompson totaled seven tackles— two of which were for a loss— and one quarterback hit.
Loser: FS Tre Boston
Boston has seen his fair share of struggles this season already, but today’s game was an exceptionally bad performance from the veteran defensive back. The worst play for Boston came in the third, when he took a poor angle on a crucial missed tackle that was the team’s last chance to prevent Ronald Jones’ 98-yard touchdown run.
Winner: Special teams unit
Cannon got the start at kick returner today and it was a good choice. At the time Carolina needed it the most, Cannon broke away for a 98-yard kick return that led to a Bridgewater touchdown. The Panthers’ special teams came through as a whole today too, with Joey Slye perfect on field goals and extra points, Joseph Charlton averaging 54.3 yards per punt and the coverage unit preventing any big Tampa Bay returns.
Loser: Third-down defense
It feels like we noted the same thing last week, but when facing an offense as good as Tampa Bay’s, the defense cannot allow them to convert nearly every third-down situation. Carolina struggled defending third-down all game, allowing the Bucs to convert 10/16 opportunities.
Loser: DB Jeremy Chinn
The team’s most impressive rookie defender got a heavy dose of tight ends today. Chinn simply got beat on the early touchdown to Cameron Brate, then he failed to bring down legendary TE Rob Gronkowski on a 44-yard catch. Chinn will need to improve on his performance against tight ends when the Panthers face second-year stud T.J. Hockenson and the Detroit Lions next Sunday.
Speaking with the media on Thursday, safety Tre Boston called Chinn “a freak of nature.”
The 2020 Panthers defense is far better than most expected it to be. A lot of the credit has to go to defensive coordinator Phil Snow, who has gotten an inexperienced and injury-ravaged unit to click despite no real offseason and no preseason games to prepare.
It’s a two-way street, though. This Carolina group was supposed to be the worst defense in the NFL this season and it wasn’t because of Snow. On paper, this unit looked more kitten than Panther compared to the competition. Young defenders like rookie Jeremy Chinn have helped defy those gloomy pre-season expectations, though. Heading into Week 7, Chinn has made quite the impression on the veterans around him.
Speaking with the media on Thursday, safety Tre Boston called Chinn “a freak of nature.”
#Panthers S Tre Boston calls S Jeremy Chinn the “Real Deal Holyfield.”
“Shoutout to his parents because he’s a freak of nature.”
We knew Chinn was a special athlete when he was drafted. Every year exceptional athletes come into the NFL and never work out, though.
Chinn’s freakish speed, size and explosiveness have contributed to Chinn’s playmaking ability. His game is far more polished than we expected at this point given Chinn’s age and the level of competition he faced in college.
On the field, range is arguably Chinn’s top asset. Chinn has racked up a team-high 49 combined tackles so far. He’s also been lining up all over the field, being utilized in the way we thought the team might with Isaiah Simmons had he been picked, instead.
Chinn is also developing in coverage after a shaky first month of the season. He made two strong plays on the ball in Sunday’s loss to the Bears, nabbing a tough PBU and his first career interception.
Here are four key questions about this unit going into 2020.
The Carolina Panthers head into the 2020 season with about as much uncertainty hanging over them as any team in the NFL. They experienced far more roster turnover than anyone else this offseason and will be fielding the league’s youngest starting defense in a decade.
Here are four key questions about this unit going into 2020.
Did they do enough to stop the run?
Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
There were a lot of reasons why the Panthers finished 5-11 last season. The biggest one was their total failure to stop the run. Carolina allowed the fourth-most rushing yards per game, the most touchdowns and finished ranked No. 32 in rushing defense DVOA.
Passing may be more efficient than running, but as long as opponents know you can’t stop it, they’re going to run the ball down your throat.
Scheme will play a huge role, here. This group never really had the personnel to pull off the 3-4 Ron Rivera tried last year. This season, defensive coordinator Phil Snow is switching back to a 4-3 base scheme, which should help at least in theory.
However, personnel is just as important and we don’t know yet if they’ve done enough to address this issue. Using a top-10 pick on a run-stuffing defensive tackle in Derrick Brown should also improve this part of the game. Getting Kawann Short back healthy doesn’t hurt, either. However, they’re only two men and effectively defending the run requires a lot more than just plugging up the middle of the line of scrimmage.
This run defense will be put to the test early. The Raiders are one of the NFL’s most run-happy teams and Josh Jacobs is one of the best at what he does.
Coach Rhule told reporters today that he 100% supports their decision to do so.
Panthers coach Matt Rhule told the media last week that Saturday’s practice would effectively serve as the team’s third preseason game this year, which is a critical point in determining which players get cut and which ones make the 53-man roster.
Matt Rhule said he had a chance to talk to a number of players, and the group came to him later to say they wanted to sit out practice to take a stand. He said he 100% supported them. He said he wants to take a stand with them.
A lot of coaches who make the jump from college to the NFL have difficulty managing pros as opposed to amateurs. It’s important for a mutual respect to develop rather than the kind of military-discipline dynamic that can be found in some college locker rooms.
Rhule will face many challenges in his first year in this league. At least this doesn’t seem to be one of those problems. So far, we have heard nothing but glowing reviews from his players, who say they trust him. Having their back on issues like this will be important for growing those relationships.
While the dynamic between Rhule and the Panthers appears strong, there could be some disagreement between the players on how to proceed. ESPN reported the team would be making some sort of public statement by Saturday evening, but as of yet that has not happened.
Free safety Tre Boston addressed that delay during his presser today, telling the media that the team is still working to get everyone on the same page.
Tre Boston says he "wants to keep it slim" with what was said in team meeting. But working on priorities. "We don't have a silver bullet to fix it all, but we want to get our priorities set and make sure everyone's on the same page."
It’s possible that not everyone in the locker room wants to go along with a stong statement in support of these causes.
For what it’s worth, a couple of key Panthers players tweeted some interesting things over the weekend which may indicate frustration with their teammates. Wide receivers D.J. Moore and Robby Anderson both alluded to some people not being ready for these kinds of conversations.
In 2018, safeties were the NFL’s odd men out in a financial sense. How did that change? With a redefinition of the position.
Positional value in the NFL is a fluid concept. Schemes change based on overall league tendencies, and all of a sudden, that third linebacker that would have been one of your higher-paid players a decade ago is near the league minimum now because your defense plays nickel or dime 80% of the time. Or that head coach who loved “21” personnel is replaced by an Air Raid guy, and all of a sudden, your running backs aren’t worth what they once were.
Over the last few seasons, the safety market has provided a fascinating study in market expansion. In 2018, the market for free agents at the position, whether they were full-time safeties or safeties part of the time and positional “jokers” at other times, was so depressed, one of those safeties accused the NFL of collusion — that the league had set the positional value low because nobody wanted to pay Eric Reid after his protests with Colin Kaepernick when Reid and Kaepernick were teammates in San Francisco. Tre Boston pointed out that in 2017, Eric Berry, Kam Chancellor, and Reshad Jones all received lucrative deals before the market crashed.
“It’s right in front of our eyes,” Tre Boston told Robert Mays of The Ringer in August, 2018. “Somebody’s got to call a spade a spade… People have to think beyond just one person. How are you going to look at a whole market if you sign everybody and one person is left? You don’t put yourself in that predicament. You devalue the whole market.
(Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports)
“Last year, [there were] three highly paid safeties. It was the highest our market has ever been. And then it just flops this year. It’s the first year any top-five group of free agents has waited into training camp. And a week into camp two of the top five sign. It’s just obvious [what the reasoning is]. I don’t understand why the questions are even there.”
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Whatever the reasons, safeties found it tougher than ever to maintain any level of long-term security back then. Boston, one of the best deep safeties over the last five seasons, wound up signing a one-year, $1.5 million deal with the Cardinals. Boston moved from the Panthers, to the Chargers, to the Cardinals, and back to the Panthers, before he finally got the three-year, $18 million contract he deserved in 2020. Tyrann Mathieu, who played at a Defensive Player of the Year level for the Chiefs in 2019, had to settle for a one-year, $7 million deal with the Texans in 2018. He balled out as he tends to do, and the Chiefs were smart enough to sign him to a three-year, $42 million deal before the 2019 campaign.
Dec 8, 2019; Glendale, AZ, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson (18) is tackled by Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker (32) at State Farm Stadium. (Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
That weird valley in value is over now. On Tuesday, the Cardinals signed Budda Baker to a four-year, $59 million contract extension that makes him the highest-paid player at his position in the league. At $14.75 million per year, Baker’s contract now exceeds those of Chicago’s Eddie Jackson ($14.6 million per year), Tennessee’s Kevin Byard ($14.1 million per year), Washington’s Landon Collins ($14 million per year) and Mathieu ($14 million per year).
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Baker leading the charge is that while he’s an obviously dynamic player on the field and he led the NFL in solo tackles with 104 last season, his pass defense metrics were… not great. And they haven’t been throughout his career. Last season, per Pro Football Focus, Baker allowed 36 receptions on 47 targets for 400 yards, 205 yards after catch, two touchdowns, no picks, and an opponent passer rating of 115.6. He’s allowed eight touchdowns and has had no interceptions in his three-year career.
Not that pass defense stats are the end-all and be-all — in fact, Baker’s versatility might be what the Cardinals are banking on as it reflects a league-wide need. Mathieu embodied that in his amazing 2019 season, and in 2019, Baker played 36 snaps at the defensive line, 340 in the box (linebacker depth), 182 in the slot, 18 at boundary cornerback, and 544 at free safety.
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You need look no further for proof of the NFL’s high valuation of do-it-all safeties than the Seahawks trading their first-round picks in both 2021 and 2022, as well as a 2021 third-round pick and safety Bradley McDougald, to the Jets for the services of safety Jamal Adams and a 2022 fourth-round pick. Adams has better coverage stats than Baker does, and he’s similarly versatile in that he can blitz from the line, take seam routes from the slot, trail as a boundary cornerback, deal with run fits in the box, and call the action from the deep third.
Another thing to consider about Jamal Adams: He's not talked about enough as such, but he fits the paradigm of the modern positionless defender. In 2019, 97 snaps at DL. 400 box, 131 slot, 34 CB, 297 FS. He is exactly what the NFL wants right now. Not at all just a safety.
“Not at all just a safety” might be the new buzzword, and the Baker contract will certainly inform whatever long-term deal the Seahawks make with Adams, who is currently under contract through the 2021 season.
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Adams isn’t the only one whose versatility will likely mean a huge salary bump in time. Early last season, the Steelers traded their 2020 first-round pick to the Dolphins for defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick, and found the deal to be more than worth it as Fitzpatrick moved from the “joker” role (where he was one of the league’s best slot defenders in his rookie season of 2018) to nearly full-time free safety and redefined a defense that was in trouble before his arrival.
(Philip G. Pavely-USA TODAY Sports)
Fitzpatrick is also contracted through the 2021 season, and you can bet that Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert is already figuring out the best way to keep him with the team in a longer-term sense. Per Sports Info Solutions, Steelers opponents had a passing EPA per play (Expected Points Added) of 0.29 when Fitzpatrick wasn’t on the field, and -0.22 when he was. No matter where you line up, that’s value.
There’s still room and need to pay the more traditional deep third safety if that player is playing at an outstanding pace. In 2019, Anthony Harris of the Vikings was the league’s only player with seven interceptions and no touchdowns allowed. Minnesota currently has Harris on the franchise tag with a one-year, $11.441 deal, but Harris had proven that he deserves the kind of security a lot of great safeties have struggled to find in recent years.
But here’s the thing — even Harris has been moving around. Last season, he had 588 snaps at free safety, but also 265 in the box, 161 in the slot, 14 at the defensive line, and four at boundary corner.
For the modern safety, the message is clear: If you want to get paid at the going rate, you’d better be able to play all over the field. Versatility is the new certainty.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is now in Colin Kaepernick’s corner. Too bad he wasn’t when it really mattered.
One of the most disturbing trends in political media in the age of social media is the automatic, uncontested repetition of any lie, no matter how egregious. Politician A can say the most obvious untruth, and the majority of political media will throw the direct quote up on their accounts without the slightest hint of contention, fact-checking, or blowback. It’s an easy way to get clicks, and a very bad way to cover, say, a Presidential administration.
When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell recently sat down with former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho in Acho’s “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” video series, Goodell was asked to express what he would now say to Colin Kaepernick, who has not played in the league since the end of the 2016 season despite his obvious qualifications to do so. Kaepernick’s pre-game protests, and his calls for an end to police brutality, are commonly and obviously cited as the reasons why.
“I wish we had listened earlier, Kaep, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to,” Goodell responded.
Goodell then expressed regret at how the increased social awareness of today’s NFL player has been cast incorrectly by many upset observers.
“What our players are doing is being mischaracterized. These are not people who are unpatriotic. They’re not disloyal. They’re not against our military. What they were trying to do is exercise their right to bring attention to something that needs to get fixed. That misrepresentation of who they were and what they were doing was the thing that really gnawed at me.”
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man: The National Anthem Protest- PT. 1
NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, & I discuss Colin Kaepernick & the protests during the national anthem that polarized America. pic.twitter.com/PcL02732ys
Well, here’s the thing about that. Goodell got his pull quote around the Twitterverse in record time, and most people didn’t push back on it. It’s a great quote, after all — the guy in charge of the league that blacklisted a player for his political beliefs sees the light! — but in the end, all it is, is talk.
In what we might call the post-George Floyd era, it is expedient, convenient, and profitable for those in charge of the NFL to claim solidarity with its players. But where was this solidarity from the Commissioner when Kaepernick was first saying what he was saying, and knowingly putting his career on the line to do so?
SANTA CLARA, CA – SEPTEMBER 12: Colin Kaepernick #7 and Eric Reid #35 of the San Francisco 49ers kneel in protest during the national anthem prior to playing the Los Angeles Rams in their NFL game at Levi’s Stadium on September 12, 2016 in Santa Clara, California. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
In June, 2017, Goodell insisted that Kaepernick was not being blackballed, saying that the NFL is all about who can do the job.
“[All teams] want to get better,” Goodell told Andrea Kremer of the NFL Network back then. “And if they see an opportunity to get better as a football team, they’re going to do it. They’re going to do whatever it takes to make their football team better. So those are football decisions. They’re made all the time. I believe that if a football team feels that Colin Kaepernick, or any other player, is going to improve that team, they’re going to do it.”
Yeah, well… not so much. The teams that overlooked Kaepernick in favor of huckleberries like Nathan Peterman, Trevor Siemian, Case Keenum, Tom Savage, and Kyle Allen might disagree with this theory, given the right amount of truth serum.
And in December, 2017, Goodell went on CNBC and said this about the matter:
“We’ve always invited Colin to come over,” Goodell said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “He’s welcome to come over and meet at any point and time. We had an open door on that. There was some meeting set up with the player’s coalition, and they were invited by the player’s coalition.”
Asked flat-out if Kaepernick was being blackballed, Goodell said, “Each and every club’s got to make those decisions… They make those decisions based on a lot of factors that are best for their football team. And when they do that, that’s what’s in the best interest.”
Squawk box, indeed. And quite disingenuous given what history has shown about a quarterback who could barely get a tryout, much less a real opportunity to compete for a starting job, despite throwing 16 touchdowns and four interceptions in 2016 for a 2-14 49ers team that had the league’s worst offensive roster, and Bad Chip Kelly in charge of it.
In January, 2019, at his “State of the League” press conference, Goodell continued, and thus amplified, the lie.
“I’ve said it many times — privately, publicly — that our clubs are the ones that make decisions on players that they want to have on their roster…I think if a team decides that Colin Kaepernick or any other player can help their team win, that’s what they’ll do. They want to win, and they make those decisions individually in the best interest of their club.”
Riiiiight. This was after a 2018 season in which the Buffalo Bills gave Nathan Peterman a four-game opportunity in which Peterman may well have been the worst quarterback in NFL history (adjusted for era, of course). There were NFL teams clearly more interested in avoiding Kaepernick than winning games, and it wasn’t just the Bills.
In 2019, the NFL assembled a hasty opportunity for Kaepernick at the Falcons’ facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia. The idea was that NFL teams could watch Kaepernick work out and get an honest assessment of his abilities. The workout was altered when Kaepernick’s representatives asked that media be allowed to attend and film the event, and were told that this was not going to happen. Ultimately, Kaepernick put on a show in front of a skeleton crew of observers at a high school field about an hour from the Falcons’ home.
The NFL had given Kaepernick minimal notice of the workout. The NFL set the workout for a Saturday, when most NFL shot-callers are at college games — as opposed to a Tuesday, the standard day for free agent workouts. Kaepernick was not informed of the names of the league-provided receivers he was to throw to in the league’s version of this workout, leading Kaepernick to bring his own guys. And the media blackout was highly interesting, given that the NFL would film Goodell feeding his dog if the NFL thought it could make money from the exercise.
Still, Kaepernick put on a show, and made it clear that he was able to help a team if given the opportunity. He also showed that he was still unafraid to take a stand… which, back then, was still a Bad Idea in the NFL’s collective eyes.
“It’s important that y’all are here,” Kaepernick said to a group of reporters and supporters after the workout. “Y’all been attacked for the last three years; y’all continue to be attacked. We appreciate what y’all do, we appreciate you being here today, we appreciate the work you do for the people in telling the truth. That’s what we want in everything.
“I’ve been ready for three years. I’ve been denied for three years. We all know why. I came out here today and showed it in front of everybody. We have nothing to hide. So, we’re waiting for the 32 owners, the 32 teams, Roger Goodell, all of them, to stop running. Stop running from the truth; stop running from the people. We’re out here. Ready to play, ready to go anywhere. My agent Jeff Nalley is ready to talk to any team. I will interview with any team at any time. I’ve been ready, I’m staying ready, and I continue to be ready.
“To all the people who came out here today to support — I appreciate y’all, I love y’all. To the people that aren’t here, I’m thinking of you, I appreciate your support from where you are. We’ll continue to give you updates as we hear. We’ll be waiting to hear from Roger Goodell, the NFL, the 32 teams — we’ll let you know if we hear from them.”
Kaepernick never heard enough to continue his career. He had already won a settlement from the league in his collusion lawsuit — his insistence that the league had conspired to deny him a job he was qualified to do — and here he was, still trying to prove the point.
The point is still proven in Kaepernick’s case, and it remains unproven in Goodell’s. If what was happening to players exercising their right to peaceful protests really “gnawed at” Goodell as he told Acho, what happened to Kaepernick never would have happened. What happened to Panthers safety Tre Boston, one of the best deep coverage players in the league over the last half-decade, wouldn’t have happened — Boston wouldn’t have had to play on a bunch of lowball one-year deals with different teams because he wanted to protest, and the word got out.
“In 2016, we saw a world that… even with peaceful protesting with Kap, we saw a world that didn’t understand, and was not willing to listen or hear what we were trying to say,” Boston told Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network in June. “It was hard times. We were screaming back then, ‘Help.’ We need help. How can we help out our community so that we’re one? And it’s tough when you hear from the top down that the people who watch football come here to get away from that stuff, even though we had protesting going on the day of the game. So, to hear open-ended promises — them telling us to do nothing, we’ll get you in the community. Then, the next week comes around, the week after that comes around, and nothing’s been said to you. Nothing’s been brought up to put you in the community. They did what they wanted.”
“You know, it’s not like that anymore. I’ve been assured, when I first came back, that it wasn’t like that anymore. I’ve had phone calls with owners and our coaches now, who have called me and told me how much they appreciate what I’m doing, and that they would love to help. Tepper calling me and telling me how much he appreciates that I was out there with the guys. It’s a 180 from what we used to be. When I was thinking about coming back, I wanted to know — did I have the stability in my job to be who I am as a man, as a black man, as a very intelligent University of North Carolina alum? They assured me that they believed in everything I believed in, I was allowed to be myself, and I was allowed to stand up for things that were right.”
That Boston and players like him are now “allowed” to stand up for things that are right only means that the NFL understands the political expediency of that concept. If the NFL had truly believed this all along, and if Roger Goodell had believed this all along, Goodell wouldn’t have parroted the meritocracy lie for as long as he did.
And that, along with Colin Kaepernick’s continued status of Qualified but Unemployed, make Goodell’s words now ring utterly hollow. A lie is a lie, no matter how it’s framed.
It’s been five years since the Panthers had a strong defensive backfield.
It’s been five years since the Panthers had a strong defensive backfield. That group of veteran ballhawks were a key part of one of the best defenses of the last decade. Guys like Josh Norman and Peanut Tillman are long gone, though. Heading into the 2020 season, Tre Boston is the only defensive back on the team who was there to see it.
Boston says he wants to build this franchise back up. While this current crop of DBs doesn’t have the experience or the turnover-creating ability that 2015 squad had, one thing they have no shortage of is speed. After Monday’s first padded practice, Boston said he likes that this secondary is fast and young.
Boston on what he likes about the secondary: “I like that we’re fast. We’re a fast unit. We’re young. That has an advantage to it.”
That speed was the main theme of this year’s draft. The team picked four DBs in their all-defense draft class. Jeremy Chinn, Troy Pride Jr., Kenny Robinson and Stantley Thomas-Oliver III are all quality athletes.
A lot will depend on how fast they can develop. Given no preseason games, Boston and the other veterans will need to coach them up quick.
So far, at least one of them has been standing out. Boston, Juston Burris and several other veterans on the team have raved about Chinn.
Boston is not alone in his criticism of the NFLPA leadership.
Perhaps it’s a product of being overlooked on the field, but NFL safeties seem to go harder at it than most when it comes to their money. As the league negotiates the start of the 2020 season with the NFLPA, some tensions are flaring over what might happen if games are stopped.
Responding to a report by Ian Rapoport at NFL Network that said no play, no play is on the table, Panthers safety Tre Boston blasted the NFLPA, saying they are acting like a court-appointed lawyer and they have some things to explain.
We signed a CBA with NO FORCE MAJEURE LANGUAGE!!! How is this possible?? Its literally the only thing we did right on the CBA! Who’s negotiating for us??? @NFLPA acting like an Appointed Court Lawyer, Looking like y’all still work for them!! 6PM Yall better be ready to explain!🤦🏾♂️ https://t.co/CF3Be5pNDE
Panthers left tackle Russell Okung has also taken issue with how the union leadership negotiated the CBA, even filing a lawsuit that was eventually dismissed by the NLRB.
Panthers players react on Twitter to the arrest of Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills in Louisville.
Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills is one of the most vocal players in the NFL when it comes to social justice issues.
Yesterday, he was arrested in Louisville along with 86 other people who were protesting outside the home of Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron. Stills and the other protestors were calling for the arrest of the police officers who broke into Breonna Taylor’s home and shot her while she was sleeping back on March 13.
Today, players around the league are reacting to the news of Stills’ arrest, including a few Panthers. Here’s what they are saying on Twitter.
Again, if you don’t like this kind of stuff you’re going to have a long year, and 2020 is tough enough already. NFL players and other professional athletes have every right to speak their minds and they’re not going to stop anytime soon.
Yesterday, Boston shared an emotional follow-up to a tweet by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, which had a large number of ignorant, selfish replies in the comments. Boston called out the stupidity and implored people to just wear the damn mask.
Boy the amount of Stupid under this tweet is amazing! People think b/c less people are dying, over 100k dead already. That we should open up NC as if they aren’t watching AZ, TX, and FL closing again. Just Wear The Damn Mask!!!! Why is that so hard to comprehend to save others?! https://t.co/ra5oL1lWRk
Here’s the thing. Wearing a mask is not an affront to your personal freedoms or your body’s ability to take in oxygen. Doctors and nurses have been wearing them all day at work for decades and can breathe perfectly fine. Also, countries that have embraced wearing masks have had far better results than the United States and some of them are already back to normal.
If you cannot be bothered to care about your fellow human beings, at least do it for the sports.
