New on Sports Illustrated: Tom Brady Keeps Ignoring the NFLPA’s Recommendation to Halt Group Workouts
The coronavirus is exploding in Florida and Tom Brady, well...
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The coronavirus pandemic is spiraling out of control in the United States. Cases
are rising in 29 of the 50 states, and not just because of increased testing. The rate of positive tests is increasing. Hospitalizations and deaths are also up. It’s getting bad, to the point where you have to wonder if it will be possible to play high-level sports in this country this year.The NFL is largely proceeding as usual, though. Because this is the time of year when NFL teams would usually be holding OTAs, some players are trying to stay sharp by holding group workouts on their own. One 49ers player tested positive for the coronavirus last week after a group workout in Nashville.
The NFLPA’s medical director has recommended that players stop holding these group workouts “in light of the increase in COVID-19 cases in certain states.”
One of those certain states is Florida, which saw more than 5,000 positive tests on two consecutive days this week. Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, has seen an average of 373 new cases per day over the past seven days, and a positive test rate of nearly 19%.
That sounds like the kind of evidence that would keep any sane person holed up in their house, but not Tom Brady. Brady has continued organizing workouts for his new Buccaneers teammates at a Tampa prep school. What’s more, he’s been posting about the workouts on Instagram with captions that sound frankly defiant.
“No excuses,” he wrote on Tuesday.
Thursday’s caption was even more brazen.
“Only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he wrote on Thursday, quoting President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
And these are not little two- or three-man get-togethers. Brady is bringing together about a dozen teammates.
I don’t know what Tom Brady thinks about the coronavirus. But I do know that he has a terrible track record when it comes to medicine. This is a guy who wrote in his book that being properly hydrated can protect a person from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. His righthand man, Alex Guerrero, once got in trouble for hawking a nutritional supplement he claimed could cure terminal cancer. It’s not out of the question that Brady would view the concern about the virus as overblown. I just think maybe the NFL’s oldest player should be taking more precautions.
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Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.
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