“Just Wait A Second. Wait For Us To Get The Language.”
July 30th, 2020
Part of the second wave of 2020 opt-outs?
A little news nugget popped yesterday by an NFL Network reporter had Joe tossing and turning all night.
The subject was opt-outs, also known as players surrendering their 2020 season for concerns or fears related to The Sickness.
Players who bail on the 2020 campaign simply have their entire current contract bumped back to the 2021 season and they can’t return this year.
Many players across the league have opted out since the players union and the league agreed on the parameters of the 2020 season, but Tom Pelissero of NFL Network was adamant yesterday that many more players will opt out during a coming “second wave.”
The early wave this week, Pelissero told SiriusXM NFL Radio, was mostly about players who didn’t want to fly in to their team facility, and then take a mandatory COVID-19 test only to then opt out.
“I would fairly guess, and this is a very educated guess, that you will see a second wave of opt-outs here once the actual [letter] to the CBA is finalized. At this point, we don’t even actually have the final language on those opt-outs,” Pelissero expalined. ” There are some questions in terms of repayment, in terms of qualification for the high-risk option (which gives player a greater cash advance on their 2021 pay). Those things are still being sorted out.
“And so I can tell you, without naming names, there are a bunch of players whose agents have advised them, ‘Just wait a second. Wait for us to get the language. The timetable is not going to shrink; it’s seven days from when the letter is finalized. So you’ve got at least a week still to sort this out. If you have to, show up, take your [virus] test so you don’t violate your contract.’
“But then you will see some guys who are this week taking tests, maybe even in [team headquarters] for physicals and everything else, who by next week decide they are also going to sit out 2020.”
No, Joe doesn’t know what Bucs left tackle Donovan Smith plans to do, though he declared he does not want to be the NFL version of “a lab rat.” But Joe can safely say that Smith hasn’t proclaimed that he is playing this season.
Joe might need oxygen to get from now to when Smith makes his decision, along with the rest of the Bucs.
July 30th, 2020 at 11:08 am
We will know a Bunch more in two weeks.
As for the 2020 season happening…”Never let your praying knees get lazy”
Go BUCS!!!!!!
July 30th, 2020 at 11:13 am
I just looked at the list and including the probable (so far) there is around 20 players opting out. The number would have to jump all the way up to 80 players to make it to 5% of NFL Players. Like I’ve said before there is a really good chance these 20+ players didn’t want to play no matter what.
July 30th, 2020 at 11:14 am
Money talks. I would guess, players who make big bucks are not as likely to sop-out than players who make little or on the bubble. The stipend money is pennies on the dollar for the high end players.
July 30th, 2020 at 11:35 am
This is purely the player’s option……it is their decision, their health, their career, their salary.
They have to weigh what sitting out will mean…..and it could end some careers. I suspect any players not on a guaranteed salary will jeopardize that salary going forward.
Any players on the bubble will stay on the bubble if they are lucky.
July 30th, 2020 at 11:45 am
They should all take HCQ as a profolaxis.
July 30th, 2020 at 12:02 pm
I see that 81 year old Tom Moore is at OBP working today.
Hopefully that won’t offend D. Smith’s delicate sensibilities too much.
July 30th, 2020 at 12:03 pm
During this pandemic the entire world has become lab rats.
July 30th, 2020 at 12:30 pm
I don’t know why the focus is on Smith…any of the Bucs players could opt out.
July 30th, 2020 at 12:36 pm
I’ll simply invoke what Marquise Goodman (Eagles WR) said about his opt out, with fans giving him grief:
“Three years ago, I made a decision that affected my whole life. I chose to leave my wife at the hospital after prematurely birthing our first baby due to incompetent cervix, which resulted in a fatality, to play in a football game.”
And he says of a year later: ““We lost our twin boys. We have three angel babies to hold and watch as their little heartbeats grew more and more faint by the minute until it stopped.”
Basically, in his wanting to prove to his coaches and team he was tough, a man, etc, he left his wife and has a lot of guilt. So a very serious dillema comes up now with COVID, and he made a call good that is for him. Personal, and wrong of anyone to be critical of it.
Yet fans were calling him all kinds of names–either unaware of his situation, of just plain ignorant fools.
July 30th, 2020 at 12:37 pm
Bonzai
Agree and it’s even worse. Imagine being a Pats fan with SIX players opting out. If it’s just DS I say we dodged our first Covid bullet. I like Smith but he’s not irreplaceable…..but six guys? Yeow.
Now lets just keep our fingers crossed that we don’t lose too many players during the season for a couple of weeks…and that’s assuming they have zero effects from the Covid itself and just are out during quarantine.
July 30th, 2020 at 12:39 pm
Roy
Thanks for that post. Sadly I think it was needed at this time.
Whatever happened to our Native American ideal…”Walk a mile in my moccasins.”
July 30th, 2020 at 12:39 pm
Durango said with old man Tom Moore being at work: “Hopefully that won’t offend D. Smith’s delicate sensibilities too much.”
Durango could be the most ignorant man alive.
July 30th, 2020 at 12:43 pm
@SPBF…most would hate to see D. Smith not play this year because we want the Bucs to win, give TB12 the best chance to stay vertical. Nothing wrong with hoping he doesn’t opt out.
BUT…it takes a special kind of idiot to give him flak over it, if that’s the decision he makes.
If he comes to camp and then whines, takes fines, is absent, etc…whole different story. But that is not D. Smith’s nature.
July 30th, 2020 at 1:01 pm
Roy
Amen.
July 30th, 2020 at 1:26 pm
Roy T. Buford Says:
July 30th, 2020 at 12:39 pm
Durango said with old man Tom Moore being at work: “Hopefully that won’t offend D. Smith’s delicate sensibilities too much.”
Durango could be the most ignorant man alive.
———
I never called Tom Moore an old man. You did. No big deal, your posts are consistently filled with unfailing weak thinking drivel.
Your turn.
July 30th, 2020 at 1:32 pm
Tom More is old what’s worng with that ???
July 30th, 2020 at 1:42 pm
They don’t need to play this year in my opinion but if they do it’s cool . The only thing is will they finish and another thing it’s going to be a lot of excuses for players who they love and a lot of excuses for the players they don’t like who’s playing good . Our defense if they play good this year then it will be because of everybody didn’t play don’t to the virus. That’s part I don’t like about them playing .
July 30th, 2020 at 1:53 pm
Roy T
Props to your posts brother!
Please let me add…
Every man(and woman) must make their own decisions. They should be based on all of the information that they can gather as well as the implications/consequences of those decisions. Yes, the ‘heart’ must also come into play in making those decisions.
For personally selfish reasons, I hope he plays.
I will never disparage him for making whatever decision he makes because I cannot know his thoughts or motivations.
July 30th, 2020 at 1:57 pm
Durango wrote:
“I see that 81 year old Tom Moore is at OBP working today.
Hopefully that won’t offend D. Smith’s delicate sensibilities too much.”
81 is old. Not subject for debate. Older than average life span in fact. Nothing wrong with that…as OneneilBucs suggests.
But you stated his age; and t’s pretty clear you were using that to play on D. Smith’s “delicate sensitivities.” If you normally make it a habit to string two completely unrelated thoughts to make a point, that’s up to you. Maybe it’s not just ignorance alone that fails you.
July 30th, 2020 at 1:58 pm
@gp…thx!
July 30th, 2020 at 2:13 pm
I believe the players who opts out are putting their futures at risk, especially if their replacements play as well if not better than them. I understand the fear of the virus but these are grown men being paid an exorbitant amount of money to play a kids game whose careers have short windows. By wasting a way a season out of fear shows me it’s not about the integrity of the game but how much money they can extort without doing anything to earn it. The amounts of money they earn well makes up for the small risk involved. Especially when they are more apt to suffer a career ending injury before they succumb to this virus. which has a (99.8 survival rate amongst people under 35) and the ones who have died are people who already suffered from serious pre-existing conditions.
July 30th, 2020 at 2:19 pm
Roy T. Buford Says:
July 30th, 2020 at 1:57 pm
Durango wrote:
“I see that 81 year old Tom Moore is at OBP working today.
Hopefully that won’t offend D. Smith’s delicate sensibilities too much.”
—–
Yep your acknowledgment that you were wrong is accepted. Now if you could learn to lower your volume and strengthen your argument that might help you from repeating these same school boy level blunders.
Your turn.
July 30th, 2020 at 3:34 pm
It’s not as simple as life or death. Contracting the virus could also cause damage to any number of vital organs. I believe the league would be wise to cancel the season. Nobody knows what the long term effects could be, and no game is worth that risk. A year from now we will have vaccines and life should be back to normal. Fans can fill the stands and games played the way they’re supposed to do be. When the Bucs win another SB, I don’t want it to be with an asterisk. I want every team to be at full strength.
July 30th, 2020 at 4:02 pm
A lot of censorship going on on this site.
July 30th, 2020 at 5:16 pm
I am quite sure there will be more players who take the. Rational sensible way out and not participate this year. Even probably a few Bucs. And no one should blame them. you rather, should applaud them. I know money talks but the season should have been straight up cancelled. you cannot and wil not defy mother nature or the course of the virus. Its gonna continue to spread until we get that vaccine. I just hope the NFL does not have players who will pay the ultimate price.
July 30th, 2020 at 6:19 pm
1sparky I was kind of thinking the same way because if we win it or a team or a certain quarterback that the national media doesn’t like they will say they won because of the virus. Or if a certain quarterback struggle that they like let’s say Wentz, Golf, or Brees or Brady or any other player they are the virus will be a excuse. So scrap the season and wait until next year .