Except for games, Thanksgiving is shutdown day for NFL players
Thanksgiving will be different Thursday thanks to the coronavirus, and the NFL will be part of the change.
The State Health Department has discouraged Pennsylvanians from doing what they usually do on the solemn holiday, gathering the entire family together for the Thanksgiving repast. The same warnings were given all across the country.
In that spirit, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell cautioned players to stay safe or suffer the consequences, which could include fines. All 32 teams have been in intensive protocol since Saturday. Team and player gatherings away from an organization’s facility are prohibited.
For Brandon Graham, Avonte Maddox, Dallas Goedert and the Eagles, that pretty much leaves trying to enjoy the food and watching the NFL on TV.
The way Graham looks at it, it could be a lot worse. At least there’s football, the livelihood that provides for himself, his wife and his infant daughter.
Typically, the Grahams invite their folks from Michigan to catch up on time lost and spend the holiday with them. No one has to tell Graham what the virus can do. He lost two aunts to COVID, a third recovering after taking ill.
“COVID changed those plans,” Graham said. “I told the family we can Zoom and talk and have fun over Zoom but overall we just can’t get together right now because there’s a lot at stake. You don’t want to be put on the COVID-19 list for getting anything. You don’t want to give nobody anything because you just never know.
“We’ve got to protect ourselves and protect each other in this moment right now. The family understands. It’s just going to be my family, the wife, the kids and that’s it. We’re really just going to enjoy Facetime calls, Zoom calls, whatever, however people want to do it.”
Maddox and Goedert, who are roommates, also are familiar with the memo from the commissioner forbidding gatherings.
“The upcoming holidays, beginning with Thanksgiving next week, will introduce new risks of exposure that we need to address now,” Goodell wrote in the memo distributed to NFL teams. “Because we have a highly sophisticated program of daily testing, we know when the virus enters our facilities, which underscores the importance of contact tracing and other steps to minimize close contacts within a facility. Recent experience has highlighted the importance of minimizing highrisk close contacts. On multiple occasions, we have seen individuals identified on that basis test positive within a short time.”
With JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Corey Clement, Vinny Curry and Deontay Burnett recently placed on COVID-19 lists, Maddox and Goedert know how quickly their individual status could change.
“We would normally have family over, but not this time,” Maddox said. “You want to be as safe as possible. You want to be safe not just to play the game, but to keep your family safe. You don’t want anyone traveling and getting on airplanes. You don’t want to put them at risk of COVID. Also, dealing with the team here, we don’t want to put anyone here at risk with COVID from seeing a family member if they have it. So, the best thing for us to do is just stay quarantined in the house and maybe warm up some noodles.” Noodles?
“Dallas thinks he can cook sometimes,” Maddox said. “One day he had cooked a steak, and I was just looking at that thing like, ‘I don’t know if that’s done.’ He said, ‘What? Try it.’ He started cutting into it and I said, ‘Nah. I’m OK. I might not wake up the next day.’”
Goedert said he’ll miss having family over. That said, he suggested Maddox’s chef skills are limited to preparing Ramen noodles.
“That’s his extended cooking,” Goedert said. “I heard him make fun of my steak. I got a new grill. It was my first time trying it out. It was a little bit kind of like jerky. It tasted good. It didn’t look as good as it probably should have. But I’m sure we’ll probably have some pre-cooked turkeys that we can buy, pumpkin pie, or something that’s already made, so we don’t have to be doing that.” There’s also plenty of football to watch. The Thanksgiving NFL schedule begins at 12:30 p.m. on CBS with Houston (3-7) playing at Detroit (4-6).
The must-watch game is at 4:30 p.m. on FOX. Washington (3-7) is at Dallas (3-7), the winner taking over sole possession of first in the NFC East. The Eagles (3-6-1) can get back into first next Monday with a victory over Seattle at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Thursday nightcap on NBC (8:20 p.m.) sends Baltimore (6-4) to Pittsburgh (10-0).
Precautions aside, the holiday isn’t so different than what the Eagles deal with day in and day out.
Under the NFL’s intense protocol, players and coaches must test negative before entering the facility, all team meetings are virtual, time is extremely limited in the locker room and masks must be worn at all times in the facility.”
Compared to that, sharing virtual time with the family is a Thanksgiving blessing.
“We are talking about probably having Zoom calls, you know, having everybody in the family over and just having fun that way,” Graham said. “I’m excited just for that. Either way you’re going to get to have some family time. You have to try to make the best of it. You can’t make excuses.”