McCourty’s Voice Return Concerns on Their Podcast

Devin and Jason McCourty took fan questions on Father’s Day as they live-streamed another episode of their Double Coverage podcast. I tuned in as I always do; there was a question from a fan that asked about their feelings about returning to Gillette Stadium as positive cases of COVID-19 are beginning to pop up across the NFL.

Devin was first to answer and said, “I think everybody’s nervous because the norm is that we just go to work — we put in a lot of work, we bond together, we lift, we’re in close quarters. It feels like that’s all being taken away from us, so I don’t know how to react. I don’t know what’s it’s going to be.”

As for twin brother, Jason, he said that he would not partake in any group workouts at this time due to coronavirus concerns. “For me, there would be no coming together to do any type of practice with teammates, because I just think we can’t dismiss with corona and everything going on,” Jason said.

When addressing the possibility of the NFL emulating the NBA and using a “bubble” both brothers seemed to be on the same page, expressing doubt on the idea. Jason said, “I think it’s very different for football. You think about training camp, there’s 90 guys on the team. Not only are there 90 guys, but there’s a coaching staff usually made up of maybe 15 to 20 … and there are so many other football-essential personnel that are in the building. You’re talking about 32 teams with over 100 members that you have to house; I don’t know if it’s really fathomable for the NFL to be able to go in a bubble.”

Devin went on to add, “I just can’t see me stepping away from my family for that amount of time. When you sign up for different jobs, you kind of discuss it as a family, the hardship of that. For us as players, we never had to think about that. We have training camp kind of in a month and a half, so we haven’t heard until now. The days start counting down. You might be telling your wife with a week’s notice that you’re gone for six months. To me, that would be very tough. If that is on the table, I think that needs to be discussed sooner than later for guys to be able to make that decision.”

I completely agree with both Devin and Jason on their concerns regarding the upcoming season. At the beginning of this global pandemic, I was hopeful that we’d be able to see fans somehow this season. However, as time went on, COVID cases began to spike in states like Texas and Florida. This made it seem like it’s been a pipe dream all along. I hope that we get to see some NFL games this year, selfishly. Honestly, I don’t know who I am without football. I want sports back as much as the next person. But I cannot, in good faith, ask players to continue to quarantine away from their families and risk coming down with this virus for my entertainment.

-Jess Donahue (@jldx392)