The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Thanksgiving plans affected by virus
In normal years, young players are invited to celebrate holiday with veterans’ families
In normal years, young players are invited to celebrate holiday with veterans’ families, but this isn’t a normal year.
The playoffs are right there within the Browns’ reach, like a turkey drumstick with one hand and a forkful of mashed potatoes with the other. At 7-3 and currently the sixth seed in the AFC, the Browns, as announcers like to say, control their own destiny.
Which brings us to Thanksgiving.
This is the time of year when players living by themselves and far from home most feel separated from their families — especially young players.
It is common for veteran players with established families to invite rookies and their friends and girlfriends to a feast after an early Thanksgiving morning practice. Sometimes 20 or more can be in one player’s home, and if the accommodations are too small, rent a hall. These guys can afford it.
But not this year with the novel coronavirus pandemic factoring into every decision made.
As president of the NFL Players’ Association, Browns center JC Tretter is doing everything he can to make sure his teammates and players from other teams follow protocols.
“You try to look at your family and people you would be bringing in for Thanksgiving, and it’s tough to look at it not like you would expect them to have the virus, but how widespread it is at this point,” Tretter said on a Zoom call.
“The more people you bring in to your bubble and into your household, the higher risk you take of one of them being sick and passing it on to you.
“That’s a risk. We’re continuing to put out information to teams and to individual players about what is the best thing to do, what type of quarantines are best to ask of your guests to decrease the likelihood that they can spread the virus to you, the best way to set up your house and the best way to have this meal.”
Surely, ever yone across t he United States is facing the same dilemma. Large family gatherings that have been a tradition for decades are being cancelled and reduced to just immediate families.
Tretter isn’t trying to say it is any different for NFL players or that the solitude bothers them more. He is just emphasizing how if one or two players step out of bounds and celebrate the holidays without following protocols and contracts COVID-19, that player could unknowingly infect teammates. Next, the players test positive, are forced to quarantine and are forced to miss critical games over the last seven weeks of the season.
“It’s a tough year,” Tretter said. “It’s a tough year for relationships and for families. It’s really tough to go a long time without seeing your loved ones. We get it.
“We get that this is the time of the year — Thanksgiving and Christmas — that you’ve always expected to bring your family together and have those holidays, really special holidays. It’s tough, but this is a crazy year and a lot’s going on. We just try to provide the best guidance on the best way to keep you safe and keep your family safe, if you choose to do that.”
Coach Kevin Stefanski has been giving his players the same warning since April. So have coaches on all levels; high school coaches in post-game huddles, usually conducted on the field, would always end with a version of the same message. “Go home. Don’t party. Always be careful what you do because you could jeopardize yourself and your family and teammates.”
Coaches of high school playoff teams were especially adamant with that warning.
And now Stefanski is spreading the same word to the Browns. Not that he would emphasize it less if his team was 1- 9, but the Browns have put in too much work to let their guard down now.
“We made sure to educate everybody in the last few weeks about what is really going on, the risks that are involved and things that you can do to hopefully mitigate some of those risks,” Stefanski said. “These are very, very strange times that we’re dealing with, and everybody on this call and everybody in the country and in the world is dealing with.”
Three Browns players have missed a total of four games due to COVID-19. Offensive lineman Chris Hubbard missed the games with Houston and Philadelphia. Fullback Andy Janovich and defensive end Myles Garrett missed the game with the Eagles. Garrett remains in isolation and has already been ruled out of the game in Jacksonville on Nov. 29.
Backup defensive end Joe Jackson was added to the reserve/COVID-19 list on Nov. 24.