And It Begins... Players Opting Out

[jebrick]

De'Anthony Thomas
Chance Warmack(ultimate bust)
Maurice Canady
Danny Vitale
Celeb Brantley
Marcus Cannon

All have opted out of this season.
The list will just get bigger

Aside from Cannon who had lymphoma his senior year at TCU, the rest of that list are ham and eggers who are kinda smart taking at least some money before they would’ve ultimately gotten cut anyway.

Donta Hightower a big name opting out but his wife just had a baby.

Two starters out for the Patriots
“That’s a shame.”

Coordinated tanking for Trevor

[Pabst]

Coordinated tanking for Trevor

[jebrick]

[Orangesteel]

Patrick Chung opting out too.

How in the hell is this season going to work?

[Pabst]

[Ice]

Those were two disturbing gifs, folks. One way or another, it does seem the "we're probably not winning a Super Bowl this year" idea may have made the rounds of the NE locker room. Many of them were pretty understandable, but if they brought Tom Brady back for a last hurrah, would we see numbers like this?

[Professor Half Wit]

Holy shit

[955876]

Patrick Chung opting out too.

How in the hell is this season going to work?

I’m not banking on it happening.

Baseball is one weekend in and already two entire teams have been shut down.

[COR-TEN]

I'm gonna leave that one alone entirely. *cough*

But I get the sentiment. That gif is disturbing, but you cannot unsee the seen.

[Ice]

Wendell Smallwood signed. Was a really good local HS player, had a pretty good career at WVU, and some moments with his hometown Iggles. Solid depth, not sure how much upside is left.

[LakecrestSteeler]

Patrick Chung opting out too.

How in the hell is this season going to work?

I’m not banking on it happening.

Baseball is one weekend in and already two entire teams have been shut down.

Chung’s probably has something to do with too much coke!

[LakecrestSteeler]

A condition caused by viruses and not unique to Covid

Not exactly true. Yes, MERS and some of the other Sars- CoV strains had similar effects but people aren't getting Myocardiopathy episodes from the common cold. Nobody knows yet but anecdotally, it can be pretty bad in terms of heart and blood-related issues. My friend finally got Covid19-negative after 200 days with it... but now she has a severe case of Epstein-Barr that her doctors are pretty certain is a leftover complication. A hideous reward for kicking Covid..

If it's myocarditis which is what was speculated in the article I read this is what I found...

There are many possible causes of myocarditis (see below), but the most common cause is a viral infection. Viral infections – such as the viruses that cause the common cold, flu, chickenpox, glandular fever, German measles, gastrointestinal ('stomach') infections and adenovirus (lung infections).

Who gets myocarditis?
Myocarditis can affect anyone, at any age, and can happen in people with no history of illness.

https://www.cardiomyopathy.org/about-ca ... fections).

I also found this...

Other causes include certain chemicals or allergic reactions to medications or toxins like:

Alcohol
Drugs
Lead
Spider bites
Wasp stings
Snakebites
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy

https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/myocarditis#1

*Note. I also saw other viruses listed that can cause it

The gallow’s humor part of this is what can the NFL do or say?

Don’t worry Ben...If you get CV19, we have the leading specialists in the world signed on with the NFL to help protect the shield.

We have Dr. Chung....He has been studying in Wuhan since January. He hails from UWMC.

We have Dr. Boticello from Rome, Italy. He has been studying CV19 at URMC since February....he has been to the Steeler bar in Rome too.

We also have Drs. Roosevelt from Mt. Sinai Medical Center. She has specialized in CV19 since March. She has a German Shepherd!

and lastly we have Dr. Moloski from UPMC...he just started focusing on CV19 in May. He loves Primanti’s sandwiches!

Breathe easy Ben!

[SteelerDayTrader]

cheats hightower opted out per net

[El Kabong]

I'm gonna leave that one alone entirely. *cough*

I think I know where you're going with that.

[Pabst]

I'm gonna leave that one alone entirely. *cough*

I think I know where you're going with that.

Took me just under 5 hours, but I finally got it

[jebrick]

All of the Pats player opting out save the team $27M on the cap in 2020. Roll that into next year.

BB is going to have all these players sit out this year and gain a lot more cap space to roll over into next year so they don’t have to feel any effects from potential salary cap drop. If a player is thinking about it, the team can give them a little nudge to sit out.

[Scunge]

Yeah, there are differing levels of "opting out".

The higher level opt out does give out a $350 K stipend and the accrued season. To be considered the higher level you simply have to show some level of higher risk from their high risk factor list of preconditions, diabetes, COPD, asthma, sickle cell, etc. If a player wants to go this route it probably won't be hard to find some high risk factor that they fall under.

This season is going to be crazy, unlike any other, if it actually happens.

The number of players that have opted out is 25. You take all 32 teams and their 53 man rosters and that comes out to 1,696 players.

So, in less than a week, the NFL has had 1.47% of those players that would have been on those 53 man rosters opt out.

I have been speculating that it could get as bad as 10-15%.

Imagine an NFL season where 175-250 players opt out. Imagine a Steeler team where 7-8 players opt out that would normally be on that 53 man roster.

[Steeldrama]

Most of the opt outs are very JAG level players.
Steelers didn't even lose James Conner who certainly had a better reason than most to opt out.
I'm seeing only a handful of relevant players opting out, certainly no major stars whose absence will ruin a team's season before it starts:

I count 7:

Eddie Goldman
Star Lotuleilei
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif
Donta Hightower
Patrick Chung
Marcus Cannon
Michael Pierce

Obviously the Marlins have shown that chaos can strike at any time, but I think the NFL is probably quite pleased at their participation level as it stands right now.

[Pabst]

Doesn't Lotuleile have some sort of heart issue?

[Ice]

Doesn't Lotuleile have some sort of heart issue?

In addition to pretty much morbid obesity. I would have trepidation as an OL or DL on the interior in the NFL.

[Steeldrama]

Damian Williams now opted out
Along with LTD that’s two starters out for the Super Bowl Champs
SBI

[Orangesteel]

Damian Williams now opted out
Along with LTD that’s two starters out for the Super Bowl Champs
SBI

That’s big. Very good RB and part of that machine of an offense.

[Kodiak]

I have been speculating that it could get as bad as 10-15%.

Imagine an NFL season where 175-250 players opt out. Imagine a Steeler team where 7-8 players opt out that would normally be on that 53 man roster.

Never going to happen. I'm shocked we're already at 24+. 2% would be more like 40 players....Probably where it ends up. (BTW, 6+ NE players is suspect as hell).

[Kodiak]

All of the Pats player opting out save the team $27M on the cap in 2020. Roll that into next year.

BB is going to have all these players sit out this year and gain a lot more cap space to roll over into next year so they don’t have to feel any effects from potential salary cap drop. If a player is thinking about it, the team can give them a little nudge to sit out.

Yeah. I thought the same. If other teams have 1-2 players opting out and NE has 6+ then you know something is up.

[Kodiak]

If the NBA and NHL can pull off bubble playoffs, I'll certainly watch. So far, the model seems to be working in the NBA, though small sample size to this point. Formula One seems to be doing all right, though not on US soil.

I think the bubble works. The key question is whether players should have to give that up to play.

And, at that point, it becomes political. But it's not hard to do, and I'd bet money the Marlins breakout was a breakdown in protocol.

[stillthere]

And, at that point, it becomes political. But it's not hard to do, and I'd bet money the Marlins breakout was a breakdown in protocol.

I guarantee the Marlins had someone fuck up and get it and then they didn't say shit and now this is where the team and league are. Probably the worst player on the team fucking it up for everyone. I mean the season is 10% over and the Marlins probably had no chance before but they are eliminated now for all intents and purposes.

a .500 record should get a team into the 16 team post season Miami can pretty much cancel that now. The Pirates on the other hand look like ass as well, and will probably win 10 games.

[Scunge]

There is a list over on NFL.com, isn't the number now 30 players? With seemingly more players opting out each and every day.

NFL players are like ordinary people when it is all said and done. At my workplace things were fine, then we had our first case of Covid-19 and people freaked out, we had some 20% of our people just stay home for 4-5 weeks, would not come to work. Then they came back and then we had our second Covid case, same thing happened in terms of the response of the employees.

The Marlins and the breakout with their players is not helping matters. And when this happens in the NFL, when you see a training camp, abbreviated as they may be, when you see a team have a breakout of players coming down with Covid, it will accelerate players opting out. It is only human nature.

I take no joy in watching this happen, I want to see an NFL season, want to enjoy football again. I am just being pragmatic and I have to wonder if a season is worth it under these conditions. Forget player safety for a second, doesn't the NFL feel any responsibility to protect the integrity of the game, of the product it puts on the field? I am not saying that the game will quickly devolve into those 3 games played during that 1987 strike season that had so many NFL players sitting out. But eventually, as more and more players opt out, isn't the NFL flirting with that scenario??

[jebrick]

If the NBA and NHL can pull off bubble playoffs, I'll certainly watch. So far, the model seems to be working in the NBA, though small sample size to this point. Formula One seems to be doing all right, though not on US soil.

I think the bubble works. The key question is whether players should have to give that up to play.

And, at that point, it becomes political. But it's not hard to do, and I'd bet money the Marlins breakout was a breakdown in protocol.

The bubble works if the people in the bubble obey the rules. How long until someone wants to sneak out to a night club or bring in a "party girl"

[Thrillsseeker]

There is a list over on NFL.com, isn't the number now 30 players? With seemingly more players opting out each and every day.

NFL players are like ordinary people when it is all said and done. At my workplace things were fine, then we had our first case of Covid-19 and people freaked out, we had some 20% of our people just stay home for 4-5 weeks, would not come to work. Then they came back and then we had our second Covid case, same thing happened in terms of the response of the employees.

The Marlins and the breakout with their players is not helping matters. And when this happens in the NFL, when you see a training camp, abbreviated as they may be, when you see a team have a breakout of players coming down with Covid, it will accelerate players opting out. It is only human nature.

I take no joy in watching this happen, I want to see an NFL season, want to enjoy football again. I am just being pragmatic and I have to wonder if a season is worth it under these conditions. Forget player safety for a second, doesn't the NFL feel any responsibility to protect the integrity of the game, of the product it puts on the field? I am not saying that the game will quickly devolve into those 3 games played during that 1987 strike season that had so many NFL players sitting out. But eventually, as more and more players opt out, isn't the NFL flirting with that scenario??

No. The league want to protect the shield and integrity of the game ONLY when it’s convenient for them. What they really want is to keep lining their pockets.

[R_S]

A condition caused by viruses and not unique to Covid

Not exactly true. Yes, MERS and some of the other Sars- CoV strains had similar effects but people aren't getting Myocardiopathy episodes from the common cold. Nobody knows yet but anecdotally, it can be pretty bad in terms of heart and blood-related issues. My friend finally got Covid19-negative after 200 days with it... but now she has a severe case of Epstein-Barr that her doctors are pretty certain is a leftover complication. A hideous reward for kicking Covid..

If it's myocarditis which is what was speculated in the article I read this is what I found...

There are many possible causes of myocarditis (see below), but the most common cause is a viral infection. Viral infections – such as the viruses that cause the common cold, flu, chickenpox, glandular fever, German measles, gastrointestinal ('stomach') infections and adenovirus (lung infections).

Who gets myocarditis?
Myocarditis can affect anyone, at any age, and can happen in people with no history of illness.

https://www.cardiomyopathy.org/about-ca ... fections).

I also found this...

Other causes include certain chemicals or allergic reactions to medications or toxins like:

Alcohol
Drugs
Lead
Spider bites
Wasp stings
Snakebites
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy

https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/myocarditis#1

*Note. I also saw other viruses listed that can cause it

I know someone that got myocarditis from a flu vaccine and still get's symptoms 1 year later. I've found that is not entirely uncommon with the flu shot.