Hmm... are his odds higher if he:

1. Continues to spend time with her, but also practices 6 days a week with 60 other dudes, travels to other cities, stays in hotels, plays against ~30 other dudes who have been practicing with 30 other dudes, all of whom who have been traveling, staying in hotels and playing against 60 other dudes, who have been.... x16?

OR

2. Goes to the grocery store once a week so he can feed and spend time with his dying mother?


I think Logic / Reality weighed in on this one.

I feel like I should've known that. That's no bueno.

Who was the shortish kid with mauler strength/technique we picked up out of the SEC as a UDFA? C/G prospect. Might give him an opening. I guess Durant could steal a gig as well.

The coaching staff has a damn tough job in front of them separating the wheat from the chaff here. Fortunately we have arguably the best in the business and Andy himself has an OL background.

Anyone ever watch the films of him coaching linemen? Jesus that guy knows his stuff. It's just incredible seeing him teach out there. Andy Reid is just a damn near perfect head football coach.

Maybe he just realized his hip needs a year to get right, had other concerns, and the chiefs said **** yeah well push your cheap deal another year down the road because you were gonna red shirt anyway.

Yeah, it sucks to see that he is out. It feels like this is hitting us hard...but other teams have to deal with it too. Did you see what happened to the Pats? The real question is how are we compared to the other teams?

It's really hard to fault these guys for taking an option that is given to them by their employer. If they were just abandoning the team in the middle of their contract, then I could see the vitrol....but this is a legal option that is endorsed by the league and by the NFLPA.

It would be understandable if it were killing 23 year old professional athletes. It's not.

The equipment guy making $40k is going to work...

There isn't a mandate to play sports in college or the pros. Give up your scholarship or your job if you want to.
Fans that are going to work, and have been going to work the entire time have the right to think you're a bit of a tart if you opt out of going to work.

Your up to speed. Any guards out there better than the ones we have left? Tackles we can move to guard?

Is he planning to completely lock himself down into a quarantine for the duration of the pandemic to avoid the risk of infecting his family?

No going out to restaurants?

No traveling/going on airplanes?

No going to gyms?

No getting a haircut?

Unless he plans to go on a complete self-lockdown, the risk of spreading the virus to his family is still present by going about his daily life outside of football.

And at least in a football setting, he'd have access to daily testing and top of the line virus prevention/mitigation protocols.

The best linemen left now after Warford opted out are guys like Demar Dotson, Cordy Glenn and Josh Kline, basically Jags.

Those professional athletes have family members.

Also, his job has provided an option for him to sit out, so he doesn't need to quit.

Does the equipment guy have a deal that was given to him by his employer to sit out and still get some pay? Don't be mad at the guys taking the option...be mad at the guys that gave them the options (if that's how you feel).

Would I sit at home for $300k or whatever it is? Damn straight I would. I'd make money, relax, heal, and stay healthy. It will probably do wonders for these guys' health, corona or no corona.

bring them in for a look

https://www.lemarssentinel.com/photo.../2911529-L.jpg

And you know for certain he is limiting his daily life outside of football to "just going to the grocery store"? (Where he is still at risk of getting the virus and spreading it to his mother).

No gyms? No hair cuts? No traveling? No restaurants?

And you are also suggesting he'll have access to the same immediate testing that he'd have in the NFL?

O.City has made a fair point here, though.

He will be flying blind a LOT more having opted out than he would've playing. Yes, he'll be a little more exposed (probably), but he'll also know a lot sooner and with a lot more certainty if he does contract it.

It's a personal choice so I won't begrudge any of them either way. But I do think there's an argument to be made that the knowledge and constant testing they'll have, not to mention the structured activity on a daily basis w/ steady contact tracing, could serve to make them SAFER by playing vs. not.

I think it's shitty to call them selfish (though it's also shitty to use selfish strictly as a pejorative - we're all self-interested the overwhelming majority of the time). But I do think some of them may end up getting this wrong. Just because you're girlfriends grandpa died of it, that doesn't mean you're better off not going to the facility every day, working in closed group settings and being constantly tested than you would be by simply staying away from the office and doing...whatever. And not being tested.

Unless they're simply gonna lock themselves in the house for 6 months (and some of them may), I'm not sure there's the overarching benefit that they expect. I guess we'll see when the season starts.

That right there is it. The employer said it was ok, so it's ok.

He’s been rehabbing his hip since November. You don’t think he has rehab info to do on his own from professionals?

Do you also think the Chiefs would just send him home without talking to him about it or confirming he has a plan for rehab? You really think they are that stupid?

You can do PT virtually now and I find it incredibly stupid to think that he will just sit on his ass and do nothing for the rest of the year.

If anything this is one player that opting out won’t affect. He needs time to let his hip heal.

I'm not angry about it. I just think a rookie taking this option is a puff and it shows what they are or aren't made of....


Any of these guys taking this option because they are sooooo concerned for their health had better not be seen at parties, theme parks, concerts, or beaches of 3rd world countries.

I think it may also come down to say the debacles of the Marlins and Cardinals where players on the team make terrible decisions. There's more guys on a football team, what if he doesn't trust the other players to take it seriously? If that's how you feel putting yourself around that many other guys is super risky.

Since neither of us know the answer, we're left to make an educated guess.

If he weighed his mother's health against making millions of dollars and another ring, and chose to opt out.... then I think it's fair to say he's also probably not taking trips to Vegas to hit NOBU. I bet he's opting out of those activities, too.

The reason he'd have all that access to daily testing is because his exposure risk is super high. If he tests positive, then that would mean that he either A) exposed his mom if he's regularly seeing her for at least a week before his positive test, or B) he's not spending time with his mom, who is dying of cancer.

Thats my thoughts atleast. If you're gonna be tested every day or every other day whatever they're doing, you're gonna know. I'm sure they have stipulations in there to isolate them if they test positive as well.

I dunno, I get it from both sides. My line of work puts me at risk every day for all kinds of shit. It's unnerving for sure. But someones gotta do it I guess, and bills gotta get paid.

He was previously rehabbing "since November" at TCU... in an organized team environment.

Under the current opt-out rules, he is not allowed at the Chiefs facility in any capacity until at least April 2021.

You are laughably naive/stupid if you think a "virtual PT" can replicate the same in-person treatments he would be getting in an official team setting (not to mention the coaching, being at practices on a daily basis, in the offensive line meetings, etc.)

And if goes to a private gym or PT facility... the risk of getting exposed to the virus and spreading it to his family is somehow less at these places than it would be in an NFL setting?

I am pretty sure a private gym/PT facility doesn't have access to the same NFL testing/mitigation protocols.

But again, those guys are going to be continually tested and know what they do or don't have to pass on to others.

If your around the general public at all, you basically don't know whos' got what.

Funny but still.... ****! :#

Niang wasn’t able to do anything at the combine bc he was still recovering from hip labrum surgery. Gyms closed in March and are still mostly not open. No OTA’s or strength conditioning bc he is likely having to take it easy recovering in rehab.

Niang was never playing this year guys. No way he was able to do real strength training with that injury. It would have been a liability getting him on the field. We already saw that shit with Fisher do why deal with that again?

This was always a long term developmental draft pick. Signing Remmers should have told you that.

Yeah - there's a calculus for all of them. Maybe this is a trust issue for many.

But for those same people - boy it'd be pretty damn hypocritical for them to go out to a club during the football season. Or a birthday party or whatever.

It's just interesting to me to see where people draw the lines on when/how they're willing to accept risk and how often that line involves work vs. play...

I have no doubt that some will absolutely sequester themselves - but MANY won't. And by losing the security blanket of the structure and testing, they may be putting themselves at greater risk. I think a few of them may not be being as honest with themselves as prudence would dictate here.

Sure but in daily life you won't be putting yourself in close quarters with 50 other people consistently, in a team environment if a few guys are morons half the team will have it in no time.

Yeah because it is totally believable that all of these opt-out players are going to live under a strict self-lockdown for the next 6 months and not go out to restaurants, get a hair cut, go to the gym, etc.

Darryl Williams?

But again, those guys are going to be consistently tested. So you're gonna know ideally, before it breaks out.

If you don't plan to just lock away at home and be uber careful, opting out is still a risk IMO.

So if gyms are gonna be closed for a while, where are these dudes that opt out gonna work out?

How do you know they won't?

That’s on them. You can’t say that everyone won’t or that everyone will.

PT is open, people are going.

Yeah.

I knew it was a shorter IOL out of the SEC with a name virtually identical to 6 guys we already had on the squad. So that's him.

Might create an opening for him.

Exactly.

I think you guys agree though that if a player that opts out is seen at a bar or a club or having a party or something, thats not gonna be a great look?

Nope, but again, that happens when they actually do it.

We shouldn't just decide they're going to do it now, when we have zero evidence they will.

Obviously but that’s also his ****ing choice to be an idiot.

And honestly if they opt out and go to a bar....then it’s probably good that they weren’t around the team.

It's just weird to me how the thoughts on players morph to whatever fits a fans narrative. Players are selfish twats that just want to get paid, those assholes.....oh look now they are pussies for not playing even though they are taking pennies on the dollar to do it.

What?

We have all of human history of idiocracy. Someone will **** it up and people will think they're all doing it.

News at 5

He had surgery in early November. He probably was on crutches for a few weeks and started PT in December, so that would be 3 months of normal PT before the Covid shut down in early March.

His Instagram even has pics of him training, one in July.

Pretty sure he knows exactly what to do as far as rehab since he had 12 weeks of it before lockdowns.

He needs time to heal his hip

Sure somebody will.

That doesn't mean Lucas Niang will. The doesn't mean that every player that opts out will. People tend to paint with a REALLY broad brush.

Yeah, "50 people in close quarters constantly" or "strict lockdown" ...it obviously has to be one or the other. :rolleyes:

I think we can look at the behavior of people in their early 20s nationwide and have a pretty decent idea of what they're likely to do. Especially in concert with what we've seen from several MLB players. Niang himself was out at protests.

We don't have a smoking gun, but we don't exactly have 'zero evidence' here either.

We don't know exactly how any single individual will act, but we can use the law of large numbers to give ourselves a fair idea of how the group writ large is likely to behave.

But ultimately that's why I say that I'm not sure many of them are being honest with themselves. Again - we shall see.

I think most opt-out players are going to have difficulty in sustaining a strict lockdown to protect their families (if that is their stated reason for opting-out) for 6+ months.

Whereas being in a highly structured NFL team environment with strict mitigation protocols in place and access to daily testing would actually be safer than trying to navigate on your own (not to mention the long term potential career impact of opting out).

You can think but you don’t KNOW.

Niang made a decision. It’s now up to him how he handles being away from the team.

One of the best quotes from a generally brainless movie you'll ever see:

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

No, you can never know how a single person will react to something. But we have a looooooong history with people in general and we know how any large enough group is likely to operate.

None of us KNOW that we'll live to see the sunrise tomorrow.

But we have to operate under the assumption that what happened every day previously will happen tomorrow as well.

Yes, this is ultimately up to Niang to decide - but he's already decided he's willing to go protest but isn't willing to go to work.

{shrug}

It's his life and his employer gave him the ability to make that choice. Again - I won't begrudge anyone for making a decision regarding work that their employer has allowed them to make. But I reiterate - it's interesting to see where Niang specifically elected to draw that line. What risk he thought was okay (and did not come with commensurate testing and protocols) and which one he thinks is not.

Pretty sad that players are given shit for choosing to opt out of a season when you’ve got ****ing idiots out there that refuse to wear a mask or stop partying because “my freedoms!!!!”.

FYP dumbshit.

Who's to say those Venn diagrams don't overlap?

Again - 24 year old football players are not a demographic group apart. They're still just 24 year old people. Who play football.

Those same people that won't stop partying are the peer groups of many of these players.

So when you immediately call the former '****ing idiots' and sanctify the latter...well I think you're doing it wrong.

It's actually all in the same type of vein, it's all selfishness, I want muh futballs, I don't care that these dudes are people. Same ask that mask shit, I don't wanna wear one so **** everyone else, same type of thought process.

One can easily argue that it is selfish BY playing. I'm a piece of shit, as I've said before. I'm definitely selfish so ain't no way I'm giving up a 1M to 30M paycheck for a 150k paycheck if I was in their shoes. Someone wants to give me millions of dollars I'll dance over hot coals.

They are taking a clearly altruistic stance to help limit the risk to their family. That decision is much more responsible than the one I would take. And I should not be annoyed by it.

However, I can see how fan who has NO CHOICE but to work a low paying job to make ends meat would be annoyed. It doesn't make it right or wrong - but I can completely understand it. NFL players are extremely privileged to be able to have a league that 1) won't punsh them for quitting 2) still pays them a stipend if they quit 3) forwards their salary to the next year 4) offers free & mandatory testing to every employee (I could go on and on about such privileges) The same cannot be said about the Price Chopper stocker making $12 an hour, living in a shitty apartment, who has no such privileges.

Believe me. If it comes out that Niang opted out and then went about with his normal life....partying and not giving a ****....I’ll be the first to call him a ****ing idiot. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt right now.

The odds of a 22 year old without the structure of a professional NFL team with expert virus mitigation strategies in place trying instead to adhere to a strict self-lockdown for 6+ months...

Didn’t know this until the other day but Remmers started almost an entire year at G for the Vikings.

That was a savvy move to get a veteran who has started many games at multiple positions as insurance.

Those fans are annoyed for the same reasons they don't like their paychecks, they make more money than me to play a game those ****ers.......they can opt out and I can't, that isn't fair..

It's jealously, what some fans should realize is they aren't NFL players nor is the NFL like your job so stop comparing.

If virus safety is your concern, then there is arguably no safer environment to be in currently than to be actively part of a professional sports team.

Even in MLB, the positive test rate is well below the positive rate in most states.

The current positive test rate in the NFL is 2% and they have access to world class facilities that are following the most strict social distancing/mitigation protocols available, with access to unlimited resources/technology (including daily testing).

Not sure why anyone who had access to that would voluntarily give it up unless they plan to live a life of 100% absolute strict self-quarantine/lockdown.

Hes also college educated tho. Most of these people are whites or black without any college education.

..... they can do this and get 150k for the year to live on. can those pussies that work in a restaurant or walmart do that? we haven't raised minimum wage in 11 years (a record since we started doing that stuff) and don't have a great social safety net. ever had a pregnant lady as your cashier? that ****ing pussy is risking her and her baby's life to give you your natty light.

yeah. **** you.

I figure the guy's decision is his own, so he can do whatever he wants. However, as we've always heard, the first $1 million is the hardest to get. If I was a rookie mid-rounder on my first contract, I'd be very reluctant to opt out if I'm a normal risk profile. You might end up disappearing off the roster never to return.

Quit being pussies and just get the virus already.

Dude - huge swaths of these kids ARE college students.

The party crowd isn't a bunch of blue-collar factory workers. These are largely college aged/college educated kids.

And as has been pointed out, these dudes opting out aren't going to sit at home all season and aren't reducing their risk of catching Covid by not playing and not being tested regularly.

Given the massively different cost of living in different parts of the country the idea of a federally mandated minimum wage is stupid to begin with so you start your argument with a dumb concept.

You can assume that but you don’t know that for sure.

I'm thinking that's still what's gonna happen. Sad.

They'll start and try before they just cancel it, to much money on the table.

I was reading an article about the safety precautions that the league is taking and something I found to be pretty cool is that all players and staff have to wear proximity monitors, so that accurate contact tracing can take place if someone becomes infected. They are also doing testing every day for the 1st 2 weeks of training camp and if the percent positive drops below 5%, then they go to every other day testing.

Does anyone know if baseball is doing any type of proximity monitoring? Seems that would be the absolute best way to keep an outbreak from happening.

You have no idea what these players are going to do. Maybe some will go out and be dumb asses, but to act like all of them wont be taking proper precautions is just stupid. You seem to always have something stupid to post.

I think your butthole must be itchy again.

I should have aimed lower because I think the point went over your head. The point being, people with significantly more exposure are still working.

The remainder of your yeast infection is a different conversation that starts with life choices and abilities, and isn't a main board topic.

Anyone who isn't a **** knows I'm in Busch Light country, you latte sipping dick holster.

Guess we'll be throwing a lot of quick 3 step drop passes...

And how many of those people would be working if their job offered them a livable wage to not?

Were are heading toward 2000000 people dead and people are still pussies for trying to live

My first thought after hearing this is that his hip isn’t right ... It may never be right and that was the main reason he fell to a later round..

Almost 10% of the way there...

was very close to typing 'blah blah blah' in reply, but... yeah, we are still working you ****ing mongoloid. I'm a damned teacher. we're ****ed. if someone paid me 150k to not teach this year I'd not even bother to type this. but still....


**** you.

I can't wait until Ebola whips out the 1000 compasses he has saved from his years of teaching and starts hurling them at Iowanian like ninja stars, that will be sweet.

You kind of have been....

It's good to see people with such sound mind, reasoning and communication skills in charge of indoctrinating the future leaders of the country.

I guess everyone isn't looking for a free payday, dooooosh.

Having a thermometer with the amount of deaths like a fund raiser graph You see in schools would make a bomb political poster if it was a thermometer exloding with the amount of corona deaths.