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Tampa Bay playing five primetime games in 2020
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Tom Brady wants to be ready for 2020, period. The problem is, there are a lot of attempts to hinder your off-season chemistry building with the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and it’s all to do with the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the novel coronavirus, NFL teams were relegated to a virtual offseason, and players from across the league took up arms to organize group practices that some … including Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons – seen as very “beneficial”. With the recent surge in COVID-19 cases across the country and a number of NFL players who tested positive despite not being allowed to enter the team’s facilities yet, the NFLPA issued a memo advising Players cease all private group practice while the NFL works to try to control what appears to be the second wave of the pandemic.
Brady, however, won’t hear any of it. It was initially reported that the six-time Super Bowl winner continues to conduct group workouts with his new teammates, but that no longer appears to be just a report. The 42-year-old essentially confirmed that is precisely what is happening in Central Florida, through an Instagram post that comes equipped with a brief explanation of why he is turning a blind eye to the NFLPA council of cease and desist.
“There are no excuses,” he wrote.
Neither the NFLPA nor the NFL has commented at this time.
With the virtual season off for veterans now in the rearview mirror, the next hurdle is big for the league. The teams are currently in the process of doing their best to adhere to the new COVID-19 protocol that includes rearranging their respective locker rooms and discover how to design soccer practices that include social distancing (the latter labeled “humanly impossible” by Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh) and don’t have much time to do it when training camps generally start in the middle – until the end of July. While the NFL is reported to remain optimistic there will be a regular season this fall, it would also be one of the obvious challenges and the not so obvious results, that is, COVID-19 that could cause a bed blow at the end of the season and in the playoffs and / or Super Bowl LV.
For Brady and the Bucs, as they attempt to establish a new regimen after a widespread overhaul of the offseason roster, there is an additional layer of difficulty as newly signed players attempt to make headlines in a world where distancing is key. to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. This is also not the first time that Brady and company have made headlines this offseason as he works to bond with his teammates in Tampa, and it probably won’t be the last, despite the obvious risks.
