COVID is obviously making a resurgence not only in the NFL, but across the country as well.
The Patriots have had five players get placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list in the last two days alone and hearing players speak on Wednesday, it seems a message to the team has been sent with just two weeks left in the regular season and then likely the postseason.
“I’ll say, we’ve had a discussion. I won’t go into what it all entailed, but I think everyone is kind of aware of how contagious it is and once it gets in, it’s in there," Dont'a Hightower said. "We’ve had the luxury these last couple of weeks of it not being here and seeing it hit other teams and seeing how it can tear a season down, tear a couple of weeks down and put [teams] in a tough situation. We know what we have in front of us, so we’re hoping everyone does the right thing.”
J.C. Jackson added: “Just protect yourself. Put the team first. Don’t do anything that will hurt the team or will hurt yourself. Watch who you be around. Wear a mask at all times. Hey, it’s coming back out. It’s getting crazy. We see a lot of teams, guys missing games because of COVID. Here, we try and put ourselves in the best position so we won’t get that and let our team down, or have guys missing games. It’s the end of the season now, so we need everyone.”
Bill Belichick was asked if the team has kept a quarterback away from everyone else to ensure they would have a QB on game day, but the coach said the highest precautions are being taken with every player on the roster.
“We’ve tried to take the highest precaution that we can with everybody, not trying to single out one player and say the other players don’t matter because that’s not the case," he said. "We’ve tried to take the highest precautions with all of our players, particularly the ones who are not vaccinated. We’ve kind of approached it that way. We want to protect everybody.”
The Patriots will take on the Jaguars Sunday at Gillette Stadium.
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