On Football: Opt outs should not have doubts or a deadline
What seemed like a simple enough process of players deciding whether to skip the 2020 NFL season due to the coronavirus pandemic has turned into a major story.
It’s a story that will affect team makeups and, perhaps, the relative peace the clubs and players’ union had reached.
The latest contentiousness has been over the deadline for opt outs. It originally was Monday, but pending signing of the changes to the labor agreement the NFL and the NFL Players Association reached to get training camps opened. Otherwise, the deadline would be pushed back to seven days after the agreement became official.
That hasn’t occurred yet, and star Patriots safety Devin McCourty accused the league of playing games with the deadline, targeting it for Wednesday.
“I think it’s an absolute joke that the NFL is changing the optout period, mainly because they don’t want to continue to see guys opt out,” he said. “I’m sure they’re shocked about how many guys have opted out. But it’s the same thing when we sign a (collective bargaining agreement), sometimes some of those things that we think are good sometimes backfire.
“So to act like guys are making a decision based on something other than virtual meetings is a joke. But I think it’s something that we go through as players, and when players understand how much power we have, we’ve seen things change. Primarily on this deal with the COVID-19 and trying to get everything back we saw some of that strength.”
Thus far, nearly four dozen players have decided to skip the upcoming season, with New England far and away impacted the most with eight opt outs. The theory that Bill Belichick can plug in players and win will be tested severely with so many Patriots walking away for 2020, including starting linebacker Dont’a Hightower, safety Patrick Chung and tackle Marcus Cannon.
Other teams facing huge chal- lenges are the Super Bowl cham- pion Chiefs without running back Damien Williams and guard Laurence Duvernay-Tardif; the Jets with linebacker C.J. Mosley declining to play; the Broncos minus tackle Ja’Wuan James and defensive tackle Kyle Peko; and the Eagles without newcomer WR Marquise Goodwin, who was expected to provide a significant downfield boost.