Morning sports update: What Devin and Jason McCourty said about the NFL’s COVID-19 plan
"We hope, but I don't know if we'll figure it out, honestly."
On Sunday, NASCAR announced that a noose had been found in the garage stall of Bubba Wallace, the only Black driver in the Cup Series.
In a statement, NASCAR said it is “outraged” by the “heinous act,” and is launching a full investigation.
The McCourty twins weighed in on football’s return: With the ongoing threat of COVID-19, Patriots defensive backs Devin and Jason McCourty are pondering what the NFL’s 2020 season will look like.
In a recent episode of their podcast, “Double Coverage,” the McCourty twins each expressed their concerns.
“I don’t believe in group workouts right now at all,” Jason said. “For me, there would be no coming together to do any type of practice with teammates on a group level because I just think we can’t dismiss — like you just said — with [coronavirus] and everything going on. I’ve been out here in Nashville, and I actually go run at the high school where I think a lot of the 49ers players were doing their team-practice ordeal. They just had a player or two test positive.
“It’s kind of scary because something like that, I think it was probably just offense, so they probably had maybe 10 guys out there,” he continued. “When you think about the future, if it’s hard for 10 guys just to get together to do little passing drills or anything of that nature, to think about somewhere between 53 and 90 guys in a training camp, it’s going to be insane. So I don’t know how that’s going to turn out.”
Devin, asked if he was nervous following the news that Buccaneers players had tested positive, also explained how social distancing is affecting the team.
“Yeah, I think everybody’s nervous, because the norm is that we just go to work — we put in a lot of work, we bond together, we lift, we’re in close quarters. It feels like that’s all being taken away from us, so I don’t know how to react. I don’t know what’s it’s going to be,” Devin admitted.
“I love how a lot of players’ attention has been on what’s going on outside of football — and I think we’ll continue to do that — but figuring out football, to me, seems to be the hardest thing right now,” Devin said. “We hope, but I don’t know if we’ll figure it out, honestly.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently suggested that the NFL might need to consider a “bubble” approach, as other professional sports leagues have done.
Both McCourty brothers are skeptical that that could work with NFL teams, whose training camp rosters are far larger than other sports.
“I just think it’s very different for football,” Jason said. ” You think about training camp — and I don’t know if there would be cut numbers or how it would work — but there’s 90 guys on the team. Not only are there 90 guys, but there’s a coaching staff usually made up of maybe 15 to 20 coaches.”
“I don’t know if it’s really fathomable for the NFL to be able to go in a bubble,” Jason concluded.
“I just can’t see me stepping away from my family for that amount of time,” Devin said. “When you sign up for different jobs, you kind of discuss it as a family, the hardship of that. For us as players, we never had to think about that. We have training camp kind of in a month and a half, so we haven’t heard until now. The days start counting down. You might be telling your wife with a week’s notice that you’re gone for six months. To me, that would be very tough. If that is on the table, I think that needs to be discussed sooner than later for guys to be able to make that decision.”
Trivia: In normal baseball times, June is a popular month for Red Sox players to hit for the cycle. Rare a feat as it is — it’s only happened 21 times in team history — Boston players have done it four times in June.
Name the four Red Sox players to hit for the cycle in June.
(Answer at the bottom).
Hint: Their initials (and the year in which they did it) are TS (1912), DE (1984), JV (1996), BH (2015).
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Eli Manning trolled Tom Brady with “Tampa King” during the ESPYs
:
Look @TomBrady — they made a documentary about us!
The #ESPYS, tonight @ 9pm ET/6pm PT on @ESPN pic.twitter.com/UkjJr1KIGL— Eli Manning (@EliManning) June 21, 2020
In his first Premier League game since January, American Christian Pulisic scored the equalizer for Chelsea: Chelsea went on to win the game, 2-1.
Christian Pulisic is BACK. #MyPLSummer pic.twitter.com/dTY06YpFcT
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) June 21, 2020
On this day: In 1994, the U.S men’s national team defeated Colombia 2-1 in a stunning World Cup upset during the group stage. For the U.S., it was their signature win as hosts, eventually proving to be enough of a points boost to gain entry into the knockout round, where they lost to eventual champions Brazil, 1-0.
The story is marred by tragedy, as the difference in the game was an own-goal from Colombian defender Andres Escobar, who accidentally redirected a John Harkes cross into his own net. Having entered the tournament as a dark horse candidate to possibly win, Colombia finished last in the group and didn’t qualify for the knockout round.
Returning home, Escobar faced intense scrutiny. He wrote a column for a Colombian newspaper, asking the country for forgiveness:
Life doesn’t end here. We have to go on. Life cannot end here. No matter how difficult, we must stand back up. We only have two options: either allow anger to paralyze us and the violence continues, or we overcome and try our best to help others. It’s our choice. Let us please maintain respect. My warmest regards to everyone. It’s been a most amazing and rare experience. We’ll see each other again soon because life does not end here.
But only days later, while sitting in his car outside of a Colombian night club, Escobar was shot six times and killed.
Escobar’s life was profiled as half of a story in a 2010 ESPN “30 for 30” documentary along with Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, titled “The Two Escobars.”
Daily highlight: Gonçalo Guedes of Valencia avoided falling over while he dribbled by four defenders before applying the finish in what resulted in a 2-0 win over Osasuna.
https://youtu.be/3Hv4BRWl_2w?t=58
Trivia answer: Tris Speaker, Dwight Evans, John Valentin, and Brock Holt.
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