Garrett’s COVID case created ‘scary’ & ‘crazy’
Giants special teams coach Thomas McGaughey, a cancer survivor, was unnerved this week by offensive coordinator Jason Garrett’s positive COVID-19 test.
“It’s scary,” McGaughey said Friday. “The whole thing is scary.”
Giants safety Jabrill Peppers did something different during his Friday Zoom interview from the team’s facility: he kept his blue gaiter up over his nose and mouth.
Peppers confirmed he “definitely” was taking extra precautions in light of Garrett’s positive test and teammate James Bradberry’s “highrisk” designation for being a close contact to an individual outside the organization.
“It’s unfortunate, but this virus is unpredictable,” Peppers said. “So we’ve gotta do our job and our share to try to limit it as much as possible.”
Backup quarterback Colt McCoy summed up the last few days most appropriately, as he tried to prepare to possibly play Sunday despite the cancellation of Thursday’s practice — the first Giants practice canceled due to COVID this season.
“It’s been a crazy week around here,” McCoy said.
The reality, of course, is that no one is coming to save the Giants from their unorthodox week. The Cleveland Browns won’t care come Sunday night, and other teams have gone through far worse than what the Giants have experienced this week.
“Ain’t no excuses,” Peppers said. “We’re not the only team that’s had an abnormal week and has to go there and play.”
Still, the Giants are wary and concerned, even as the rest of the coaches and players continued to test negative and practiced on Friday at MetLife Stadium.
McGaughey in particular was shaken because Garrett had worked a normal day on Wednesday prior to that morning’s test coming back and being confirmed positive that night.
The NFL determined there had been no high-risk or close contacts to Garrett who needed to be quarantined, as well.
McGaughey, however, said the Giants’ routine — even with their
many precautions — has the top coaches sharing a space in the facility often: head coach Joe Judge, Garrett, defensive coordinator Pat Graham and McGaughey.
“We’re all around each other all
the time, ya know” McGaughey said. “And that’s the scary thing about this virus, is we try and do our best and spacing out, but we’re always around each other. Me, Jason, Pat and Joe are always in
coordinators meetings together. But it’s scary. The whole thing is scary.
“You never know,” McGaughey continued. “I might touch a doorknob or push a button in an elevator — or going to my car somebody could have touched the door handle on my car, I don’t know. You just go to the grocery store, you just don’t know. And that’s the scary part about this whole situation. You try and control what you can control and pray it works itself out.”
In Bradberry’s case, Judge said that the veteran corner had made a “mistake” by visiting an outside chiropractor who had tested positive, but the coach wanted to make it clear that “James wasn’t defiant” and “didn’t do anything malicious to hurt the team.”
Judge actually said Bradberry’s “assumption” was the chiropractor “was with another NFL team” and “he was under the assumption that he was tested every day.” Unfortunately that wasn’t the case, and now Bradberry is out for Sunday’s game.
“What we can’t do as a team and coaches and players is make those assumptions,” Judge said.
Judge said he has stressed to players to take more proactive measures in these types of situations, so Bradberry’s err undoubtedly was avoidable. He will be eligible to return to the team Monday as long as he continues to test negative.
“In terms of him dealing with a chiropractor outside of our system, that’s obviously something that we try to avoid,” Judge said. “(Head athletic trainer) Ronnie (Barnes) and his staff do a great job of making multiple people available inside. If someone is external, we’ve talked to our players repeatedly and re-emphasized that as well, that if it’s someone externally, I don’t care if it’s a chiropractor or a dentist, a barber, whoever you need contact with, get them in our system. We’ll get them tested, we’ll make sure you’re safe.
“We have to trust the process, trust the protocols. We have to rely on Ronnie and his staff a great deal to get us through this. They’ve done a tremendous job the entire year. We’ve been very fortunate with the limited number of cases and the limited number of postponements or adjustments to our schedule that we’ve had to make.