The NFL Really you don’t want your players to catch the coronavirus, but also Really want to make billions of dollars from a full contact sport in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic. So, in the half-hearted name of health and safety, the league is releasing a new toy to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 on the field: a mouth guard.
The Creation of NFL Doctors and Engineers and the NFL Players Association, ESPN reports Oakley mouth guard adheres to the face shield and uses plastic sheeting to prevent transmission of droplets. Players are not required to wear the mouth guard stillBut the NFL team of medical experts is keeping its fingers crossed that it will soon be mandatory.
“That is certainly what we are going to encourage,” NFL medical director Dr. Allen Sills told ESPN. “And we hope that we come up with a product design that is something that everyone would like to use, because they will see the value and want that extra protection without compromising performance.”
Ummmmm about that performance detriment …Despite Sillis’ claims that players will still be able to perform at a high level, they don’t exactly seem interested in the idea of restricting their airflow on the field.
“In my second year in the league I thought it would be great, I put a visor on my helmet,” five-time All-Pro JJ Watt saying ProFootballTalk. “I thought, ‘It looks so cool, I want to put on a visor.’ I had it for about three practice periods and I said, ‘Take off this fool, I’ll die here.’ […] So are you going to put something around my mouth? You can keep that. If that comes into play, I don’t think you’ll see me on the field. “
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Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon said almost the same thing on Twitter.
“You could also have a disinfectant pump coming out of our uniforms while you’re at it,” he tweeted. “I won’t wear it.”
Sure, the mouth guard could reduces the likelihood of coronavirus transmission, but how ridiculous it sounds considering that players will already be doing everything but social distancing while facing each other for hours? This line of thinking is exactly why players had a similar response to the NFL announcement that exchanging T-shirts after games would be banned this coming season.
“Players can participate in a full contact game and do it safely,” Pro Bowl cornerback Richard Sherman tweeted. “However, it is considered unsafe for them to exchange shirts after that game.”
This is certainly a head scratch, considering NFLPA medical director Dr. Thom Mayer has already called football “probably the perfect medium or Petri dish for transmitting the virus,” but the NFL He is moving forward with his plan to distribute the mouth. shields all 32 teams within the next week anyway.
Well then.
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