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O-Zone Podcast: Parekh, Trulock, Ettel · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:08
Speaker 1: Welcome to the ozone podcast featuring Jaguars dot Com Senior
0:13
Speaker 1: writer John Osher and Jaguars executive producer Dave the Candis.
0:18
Speaker 1: This week's Those on Podcasts. It's a full episode about
0:22
Speaker 1: what the Jaguars have done to combat, to deal with
0:26
Speaker 1: to try to maximize their efficiency with a COVID nineteen
0:31
Speaker 1: centric training camp, off season, regular season, We're gonna hit
0:34
Speaker 1: the whole gamut. We're joined by the Jaguars. I guess
0:37
Speaker 1: you would call him the COVID team. Mega Perek our
0:41
Speaker 1: senior vice president and chief Legal officer, Scott Truelock, the
0:44
Speaker 1: director of Player Health and performant, and Cassie at Hell,
0:47
Speaker 1: the associate athletic trainer. Now, ironically, Panel, Nowhere in the
0:52
Speaker 1: job description that I just read does it ever say
0:56
Speaker 1: anything about COVID. Does it say anything about, I guess Mega,
1:00
Speaker 1: about crisis management, but about dealing with maybe this pandemic
1:05
Speaker 1: in as high a profile situation as an NAGY. I'll
1:09
Speaker 1: go around each of you. First, tell me your role, Mega,
1:14
Speaker 1: as it relates to COVID. What's the easiest way to describe? So,
1:18
Speaker 1: I think at a general level, the goal that all
1:20
Speaker 1: of us have is just to try and keep as
1:23
Speaker 1: many people as possible safe and healthy so that we
1:26
Speaker 1: can continue to operate the business. So I very vividly
1:30
Speaker 1: remember when all of this started, because I actually landed
1:32
Speaker 1: on a red eye from Salt Lake City and Scott
1:35
Speaker 1: called and had the foresight to realize that we were
1:37
Speaker 1: about to need to make some pretty significant decisions as
1:40
Speaker 1: a business and said, are you coming in? And I
1:43
Speaker 1: was like, actually, I was going to go home because
1:44
Speaker 1: I just landed from this red eye and It's like,
1:45
Speaker 1: I think you need to come in today. And that
1:48
Speaker 1: was March twelve, and the next day, essentially is when
1:51
Speaker 1: we sort of had to shut down our offices in general,
1:54
Speaker 1: and the following week is when we really shut things
1:56
Speaker 1: down completely. We never had to, but I would say
1:59
Speaker 1: that the guess skill that we've had to have this
2:02
Speaker 1: entire time is making sure they're communicating with one another,
2:05
Speaker 1: learning as much as possible, and then adapting as quickly
2:08
Speaker 1: as we can, because every day, every week seems to
2:11
Speaker 1: bring a new NFL memos and new guidance and some
2:14
Speaker 1: things that we've had to adjust to. And it's been
2:16
Speaker 1: that way since March. Now, Scott, your role, I always
2:20
Speaker 1: think of you as the head athletic trainer, which I
2:22
Speaker 1: always think of is dealing with you know, bones and muscles,
2:27
Speaker 1: but this is a completely different thing. I guess you
2:30
Speaker 1: knew early on it was going to be a thing,
2:32
Speaker 1: and your role as it relates to COVID and how
2:37
Speaker 1: it's different than it was in the normal past, if
2:41
Speaker 1: you will, Yeah, I mean, obviously we all look at
2:44
Speaker 1: the pattern in our world as things kind of drifted
2:46
Speaker 1: from Asia back in the wintertime, and we could kind
2:49
Speaker 1: of see it coming a little bit, obviously not knowing
2:51
Speaker 1: exactly how it was going to impact us or when
2:54
Speaker 1: it was going to impact us. But you know, in
2:56
Speaker 1: my role, it's obviously the health and safety of the
2:58
Speaker 1: players and all the people to work with the players.
3:01
Speaker 1: Um is always the focus. You know, I will say
3:04
Speaker 1: that obviously no one was prepared for COVID and how
3:08
Speaker 1: it's materialized, but I can say for years, if you
3:11
Speaker 1: go back to Merca, you know, the biggest challenge for
3:14
Speaker 1: us has been infectious disease or it's the area that's
3:17
Speaker 1: given us the most concerned because it's quite frankly the
3:19
Speaker 1: area we have the least control over. You know, Orthopedic
3:22
Speaker 1: injuries are scary. Nobody likes an a c L injury
3:25
Speaker 1: or labeled hair on the shoulder. But for us, those
3:28
Speaker 1: are somewhat manageable because they're predictable and we can have
3:32
Speaker 1: somewhat control over them. But it's the infectious disease that's
3:35
Speaker 1: always scared us. And obviously this has kind of been
3:38
Speaker 1: that scenario unfold with an infectious disease, in this case
3:42
Speaker 1: in COVID, it's kind of swept through the country and
3:44
Speaker 1: affected every part of our lives. So from the very
3:47
Speaker 1: get go, if you look back, after the combine was
3:49
Speaker 1: doing really things, things started to pick up and COVID
3:53
Speaker 1: as it applied to American sports, and from that time
3:56
Speaker 1: it has been just an all out effort um to
3:59
Speaker 1: try to come up with the solution. And I think
4:01
Speaker 1: it's important to note that while this is a medical issue,
4:04
Speaker 1: the solution for it it involves every aspect of the
4:07
Speaker 1: organization um from obviously the administration, operation staff, security and
4:13
Speaker 1: equipment staff, the strength staff. I mean, every component of
4:16
Speaker 1: the organization is required to help solve this issue. And Cassie,
4:21
Speaker 1: my impression is you are front lines every day, every
4:26
Speaker 1: player dealing with that. Take me through your role in
4:30
Speaker 1: dramatically different than it was this time last year with
4:32
Speaker 1: the team. Obviously, Yeah, absolutely, my role has definitely taken
4:36
Speaker 1: on a new, uh, kind of a new chapter this year. UM.
4:40
Speaker 1: And obviously I was kind of added to the team
4:42
Speaker 1: the most recently out of everyone on this panel. UM,
4:45
Speaker 1: and so I kind of steadily started with COVID over
4:48
Speaker 1: the summer. We UM kind of given some tasks here there,
4:51
Speaker 1: and then I've kind of taken it on my primary job.
4:54
Speaker 1: So UM, first thing in the morning, it's all about testing,
4:57
Speaker 1: making sure everyone gets the appropriate tests at the appropriate time.
5:00
Speaker 1: I'm the appropriate cadence UM. And then from there, you know,
5:03
Speaker 1: dealing with positive cases and going through all the protocols.
5:06
Speaker 1: So it's it's really about just going through step by
5:08
Speaker 1: step with the protocols and and really answering all of
5:11
Speaker 1: the questions that we have as they come about. Every
5:14
Speaker 1: department has several questions and you know, several concerns that
5:17
Speaker 1: kind of come up throughout the day as we're we're
5:19
Speaker 1: presenting with new challenges, So it's kind of about tackling
5:21
Speaker 1: each one of those as they come up. Now, Mega,
5:24
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated with the logistics of this, and perhaps you
5:28
Speaker 1: can all speak to about us mega, the logistics of
5:32
Speaker 1: getting information from the league and information from all sources,
5:39
Speaker 1: and I guess funneling those into this process and into
5:42
Speaker 1: protocols I in real time has to be you know,
5:50
Speaker 1: I can't even grasp it. Is that the major challenge.
5:53
Speaker 1: I guess that's what you're dealing with every day, all
5:55
Speaker 1: three of you. I would say, yes, absolutely, And I
5:58
Speaker 1: think that there's two things. One is that in any
6:01
Speaker 1: given year, normally by this time of year, we would
6:04
Speaker 1: have had a preseason game, and the best virtues that
6:09
Speaker 1: we have are to be proactive and prepared and ready
6:12
Speaker 1: to go for as soon as the season is able
6:15
Speaker 1: to start. And this year, at some point during the year,
6:17
Speaker 1: I sort of had to train myself to realize this
6:20
Speaker 1: is not the year for that. This is not the
6:21
Speaker 1: year we were going to be ahead of the game.
6:22
Speaker 1: This isn't the year where you're going to have everything
6:25
Speaker 1: planned out perfectly. This is the year we need to
6:27
Speaker 1: be able to be agile and adapt at the very
6:30
Speaker 1: last minute, because, frankly, as the information evolved, it is
6:35
Speaker 1: an overall better virtue to be able to adapt as
6:38
Speaker 1: opposed to just having stuck to a particular track or
6:40
Speaker 1: plan that we might have had, and so yes, there
6:43
Speaker 1: are constantly new protocols coming in, but on the one hand,
6:46
Speaker 1: will that can be overwhelming. On the other hand, if
6:48
Speaker 1: it means that as the information is evolving, we're adapting,
6:51
Speaker 1: that's a good thing. And then the other thing that
6:53
Speaker 1: Scott just sort of mentioned is that it's really challenging
6:56
Speaker 1: when the thing that you're trying to protect against is invisible.
7:00
Speaker 1: So whenever we're preparing for other crises like hurricanes, you
7:03
Speaker 1: can see those comping. It's a discrete injury, you can
7:06
Speaker 1: see those coming. But with this, as time goes on,
7:09
Speaker 1: and as an organizations, we've been working on transparency and
7:12
Speaker 1: getting everybody together and chopping down offices and going to
7:14
Speaker 1: an open floor plan, and all of a sudden that
7:17
Speaker 1: the exact opposite has been demanded from this or it's like,
7:19
Speaker 1: actually the virtue is not being together and having to
7:21
Speaker 1: remind people that they need to be cognizant of something
7:25
Speaker 1: that's invisible is really challenging. UM and Cassie and Scott
7:29
Speaker 1: can speak to this, but you'll see that that's the
7:31
Speaker 1: reason that there is just so much signage around the office,
7:34
Speaker 1: or why we try to repeat pretty frequently what the
7:36
Speaker 1: communication is because otherwise it's it's easy to forget, and
7:39
Speaker 1: it's so natural for people to want to come together.
7:41
Speaker 1: It's something that we've been encouraging them to do for
7:43
Speaker 1: at least the last eight years that I've been here.
7:46
Speaker 1: Scott and Cassie want to ask you in a minute
7:48
Speaker 1: how players have responded. I want to ask one more
7:51
Speaker 1: thing in MEGA, how does the information come from the NFL?
7:56
Speaker 1: Is it daily? Is it? Are you the point person
8:00
Speaker 1: who's taking that every day? Is it by the hour,
8:03
Speaker 1: by the week, or how does that process work? Is
8:06
Speaker 1: there an easy way to describe it? The frequency varies
8:08
Speaker 1: and that's all for good reason, UM. But so initially
8:11
Speaker 1: when the club facilities shut down, I would say that
8:13
Speaker 1: that went to president, head coach GM and sort of
8:17
Speaker 1: across the board in terms of administration with the players
8:20
Speaker 1: specific protocols, those tends to go to GM, head trainer,
8:24
Speaker 1: infection control officers UM and our team doctors and then
8:28
Speaker 1: usually the club counsel are on those two. And then
8:31
Speaker 1: there's now a whole separate set of return to stadium
8:34
Speaker 1: protocols whether there's fans or limited fans, and then a
8:37
Speaker 1: lot of that is coming from club business development. So
8:40
Speaker 1: depending on the specific area focus and it's got some
8:43
Speaker 1: of this. Every part of the organization's impacted, whether it's PR, broadcasting, marketing,
8:48
Speaker 1: ticket sales, sponsorship, and so it just really depends on
8:51
Speaker 1: what the subject matter is. And the NFL is releasing
8:54
Speaker 1: protocols to those different groups, and then any sort of bigger,
8:56
Speaker 1: higher level updates are going to head coach, GM President
9:00
Speaker 1: Scott and cass u. How players responded to this, because
9:06
Speaker 1: in the emails that I get from fans and my
9:08
Speaker 1: conversations with people, there's this thought or assumption that players
9:13
Speaker 1: are gonna fight it. Players are going to be the problem.
9:15
Speaker 1: They're gonna be going out and they're gonna resist what
9:18
Speaker 1: you guys are doing. I sort of don't believe that,
9:22
Speaker 1: but you guys see them every day. I'm still distance.
9:26
Speaker 1: How are they responding to it? And what's your impression
9:28
Speaker 1: of how they have you know, operated under these restrictions
9:33
Speaker 1: or protocols, whatever you call them. Yeah, if you think
9:36
Speaker 1: of you know, if you think about it, players are
9:38
Speaker 1: just like the rest of us, and that they want
9:40
Speaker 1: to be able to do their jobs, but they want
9:42
Speaker 1: to be able to stay safe and they want to
9:44
Speaker 1: keep their families safe. So understandably if you kind of
9:47
Speaker 1: track back to the summer. The NFL Players Association has
9:51
Speaker 1: worked with the NFL Management Counsel in terms of working
9:54
Speaker 1: jointly to create these protocols. Obviously the n f l
9:57
Speaker 1: p A advocating for their players and making sure that
10:00
Speaker 1: whatever protocols were implemented were there to protect everyone, you know,
10:04
Speaker 1: So they want to be protected and they want to
10:06
Speaker 1: do their jobs at the same time, and obviously that's
10:08
Speaker 1: a big challenge. You know, they're young people, so like
10:12
Speaker 1: all young people, there's a little bit of a sense
10:14
Speaker 1: of invincibility, but for the most part, they understand the
10:18
Speaker 1: concern here and they want to do this the right
10:20
Speaker 1: way and follow the protocols and and be able to
10:23
Speaker 1: have a season. You know, So lots of questions. There's
10:27
Speaker 1: been a lot. We've had a number of virtual educational
10:30
Speaker 1: sessions before we ever got started to help relay information
10:34
Speaker 1: to answer questions. And that remains the case where we're
10:36
Speaker 1: constantly educating. As you know, there's updates that are constantly
10:40
Speaker 1: coming through, so even by the day, if not by
10:42
Speaker 1: the week, some of our protocols are adjusting, and so
10:45
Speaker 1: there's constantly education that goes along with this. UM. You
10:48
Speaker 1: know Cassie did. She serves us our infectious infection control officers,
10:52
Speaker 1: so she's an athletic trainer, but this role really requires
10:56
Speaker 1: her full time and a couple others working with her
10:59
Speaker 1: full time. But she's really the one that's engaging the
11:01
Speaker 1: players most intimately first seeing the morning with any positive
11:05
Speaker 1: results in the protocol, so she can kind of speak
11:07
Speaker 1: to that process with the players. And cass I wanted
11:11
Speaker 1: to ask you about that. It's my understanding that you
11:14
Speaker 1: have basically assigned a point person in each position group
11:20
Speaker 1: or have somebody that you are using as an ally
11:23
Speaker 1: that's the right term for it. That first, and then
11:26
Speaker 1: how has communication gone with these guys on a day
11:30
Speaker 1: basis on that front? Is the message getting through? Yeah?
11:33
Speaker 1: I for the most part, our guys have been really compliant,
11:36
Speaker 1: and that kind of goes across all of our staff,
11:38
Speaker 1: our coaches, and our players. UM. It's all really about
11:42
Speaker 1: education UM and a lot of the questions and issues
11:46
Speaker 1: that I've had with people are just a lack of education.
11:48
Speaker 1: So it's really about just taking the time to be
11:50
Speaker 1: able to really talk to them explain the importance of
11:53
Speaker 1: PP or social distancing UM and and not being frustrated,
11:56
Speaker 1: but just to really understand that, you know, it's not
11:59
Speaker 1: everyone has the same knowledge. Not everyone spends you know,
12:02
Speaker 1: hours reading memos or or looking through all the CDC
12:05
Speaker 1: and and all of that. So, um, I really think
12:07
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, these allies that you're talking about,
12:10
Speaker 1: my background as an athletic trainer in the past has
12:13
Speaker 1: really served me well. Um, guys that I've had positive
12:16
Speaker 1: relationships with in the past really really do respond well,
12:20
Speaker 1: and you know, I can talk to them or educate
12:23
Speaker 1: them and use them as kind of veterans around to
12:26
Speaker 1: be able to support their teammates and you know, pass
12:28
Speaker 1: along that education. So I think really that my background
12:31
Speaker 1: as an athletic trainer has really served me well in
12:33
Speaker 1: this for both of you, Scott and Cassie, how much
12:38
Speaker 1: education slash re education has had to be done because
12:43
Speaker 1: obviously a lot of these guys are young. Even if
12:45
Speaker 1: they're not young people in general, I think it was
12:48
Speaker 1: Cassie mentioned it, they just haven't read all the documents.
12:52
Speaker 1: They don't know, so I'm sure they're coming in and saying, well,
12:55
Speaker 1: we did this, and you're having to say that's not
12:57
Speaker 1: how this works. Is there a lot of that Yes,
13:00
Speaker 1: there's a there's a lot um for me on a
13:03
Speaker 1: daily basis just walking around, you know, and and it's
13:07
Speaker 1: it's multiple times throughout the day, whether it's coaches or
13:11
Speaker 1: players or staff educating, re educating, explaining, you know, correcting
13:15
Speaker 1: things that maybe they're they were mistold or misinterpreted. Um.
13:19
Speaker 1: I've heard a lot of different things that people have
13:22
Speaker 1: heard from others or read somewhere on the internet, and
13:24
Speaker 1: so just kind of correcting that and correcting that path
13:27
Speaker 1: so that we're all kind of on the same page
13:28
Speaker 1: of things has definitely been a daily task for sure, John,
13:34
Speaker 1: you know, if you think about it, I mean for
13:35
Speaker 1: us as a country and how much education that's occurred
13:38
Speaker 1: when it comes to infectious disease or our team physicians
13:41
Speaker 1: Dr Capelan and Dr Orrio obviously have been huge in
13:44
Speaker 1: terms of interpreting all of the medical information. Even Dr
13:48
Speaker 1: kim Meyer, who's our infectious disease specialists, you know, for
13:51
Speaker 1: for them in their world, this is something they understand
13:53
Speaker 1: in terms of how viruses work. When are you contagious,
13:56
Speaker 1: when are you not contagious? You know, a positive test,
13:59
Speaker 1: what the that mean in terms of, uh, your level
14:02
Speaker 1: of being contagious, and so those are the kind of
14:05
Speaker 1: things that we spent the whole summer learning and making
14:08
Speaker 1: sure we understood it. So it's certainly understandable that these
14:11
Speaker 1: concepts for our players and coaches understand of why we're
14:15
Speaker 1: testing every day, and why do we need to test
14:18
Speaker 1: three days before you come into the stadium, And why
14:21
Speaker 1: is it that after a positive test fourteen days later
14:25
Speaker 1: that you might have a positive test, But it doesn't
14:27
Speaker 1: mean you're contagious. You know, these are all things that
14:29
Speaker 1: are it's very understandable that it's it's hard to get
14:33
Speaker 1: a grasp of what those things mean and why we
14:36
Speaker 1: still need to wear masks even if you test positive
14:38
Speaker 1: for antibodies. You know, you know it's it's for us.
14:41
Speaker 1: It was an education. Our doctors have been huge and
14:43
Speaker 1: helping us understand that, and now it's kind of our
14:46
Speaker 1: job to help everybody in our building understand why we're
14:49
Speaker 1: following these protocols. Scott, I'll ask you this because you're
14:53
Speaker 1: the person who has been around probably football and a
14:57
Speaker 1: daily basis the longest out of this group. How different
15:01
Speaker 1: is the daily operating I haven't been in most fans
15:04
Speaker 1: haven't been in the building, and won't be in the building.
15:07
Speaker 1: But how different is the day to day walk of
15:10
Speaker 1: life for these guys, uh in comparison to what it
15:13
Speaker 1: was last year. Yeah, there's there's definite differences. Um. I
15:18
Speaker 1: would say one major advantage we have as our stadium
15:22
Speaker 1: because so much of the the everyday practices is all
15:26
Speaker 1: about distance, is all about even in the dining hall,
15:29
Speaker 1: about staying six ft apart and having plexic lass. You know,
15:31
Speaker 1: a lot of teams and I've been on teams that
15:33
Speaker 1: had dining areas where everybody you know, sat at small
15:37
Speaker 1: tables together. But we have the whole West Club and
15:40
Speaker 1: so we were able to transform the West Club into
15:42
Speaker 1: our dining area, whereas a lot of teams just have
15:44
Speaker 1: to rotate people through. And even having multiple locker rooms,
15:48
Speaker 1: we've been able to spread out and multiple locker rooms,
15:50
Speaker 1: which is a big advantage of other teams have to
15:53
Speaker 1: just rotate guys through. So there are definite differences. Obviously,
15:57
Speaker 1: virtual meetings and most of us had never really been
16:00
Speaker 1: on a virtual meeting before this spring, and now we're
16:03
Speaker 1: just kind of second nature to us. So you know
16:05
Speaker 1: that those type of meetings that players have never had
16:08
Speaker 1: before are now a big part of their day. Um,
16:10
Speaker 1: even medical care. We used to have a lot of
16:12
Speaker 1: guys to come in wait for treatment, whereas everything is
16:14
Speaker 1: by appointment now, so there are a lot of differences
16:17
Speaker 1: in their day to day operation. Um. Even the way
16:20
Speaker 1: we hydrate players on the field is different now, you know.
16:23
Speaker 1: So ultimately, we're trying to make football football with kind
16:26
Speaker 1: of everything that leads up to that is different than
16:30
Speaker 1: it was before. Oh and asked Mega this when this
16:33
Speaker 1: whole thing started coming about and you're trying to figure
16:36
Speaker 1: out how to go about it on a league level,
16:38
Speaker 1: I guess how close did we come to a bubble?
16:42
Speaker 1: How many other things were considered? How did we get here? Yeah,
16:46
Speaker 1: I'll let's go jump in as well. But I will said,
16:48
Speaker 1: the league did a good job of at least weekly
16:50
Speaker 1: having calls just to update us all about what the
16:53
Speaker 1: status of the current protocols were, even if they weren't
16:55
Speaker 1: necessarily finalized, and what their thought process was between behind
16:59
Speaker 1: how season might look, um and so on. One of
17:03
Speaker 1: the calls that we had, they were talking out the
17:06
Speaker 1: merits of going to the bubble or not. And that
17:08
Speaker 1: was the time when there were some outbreaks amongst college teams,
17:10
Speaker 1: and they said look, our approach is going to be
17:13
Speaker 1: at least four now that we understand there's a certain
17:17
Speaker 1: amount of contact that's necessary as a part of playing football,
17:20
Speaker 1: but we don't need to maximize the number of points
17:22
Speaker 1: of exposure. So in every other instance, let's do our
17:25
Speaker 1: best to have people keep distance and put up barriers.
17:28
Speaker 1: So Scott was talking a little bit of how the
17:29
Speaker 1: benefits of our facility allow us to spread out um
17:33
Speaker 1: and even if we wanted to have meetings in the
17:35
Speaker 1: team meeting rooms, you also have the option to have
17:37
Speaker 1: it in other parts of the stadium. So we really
17:39
Speaker 1: have had three businesses essentially continuously operating out of our
17:45
Speaker 1: stadium now since April, between a s M and our
17:49
Speaker 1: facility management company, the fact that wrestling has been parked
17:52
Speaker 1: there since April and operating essentially completely distinctly from where
17:57
Speaker 1: the football footprint is at this point, and then we've
17:59
Speaker 1: also have the football team. So there's been a week
18:01
Speaker 1: or two where we were out because we're required to
18:03
Speaker 1: be under Florida law. But since April we've been in there,
18:06
Speaker 1: we've been operating. There's been a lot of regular testing
18:10
Speaker 1: across the businesses, and people have been careful and following
18:12
Speaker 1: the protocols with respect to answering the screening questionnaire, getting
18:16
Speaker 1: their temperature scanned UM, and then to your point earlier,
18:20
Speaker 1: just re education is as important because I never expected
18:23
Speaker 1: when all of the started necessarily that this would be
18:26
Speaker 1: going on from March through August through let's say, I
18:30
Speaker 1: think probably at least through the end of the season,
18:33
Speaker 1: another six months. And so it's the extent that that's
18:35
Speaker 1: the case, it's really easy to get complacent about symptoms
18:38
Speaker 1: or wanting to go back in, or just people realizing that,
18:41
Speaker 1: you know, working from home is fine but not necessarily
18:44
Speaker 1: optimal for them, and people really wanting to go back in.
18:46
Speaker 1: But there's even days where for me, I've checked myself
18:49
Speaker 1: so you know what, like if I'm feeling tired, let
18:52
Speaker 1: me make sure that I do my best and not
18:54
Speaker 1: And Scott's at the example on this early on where
18:57
Speaker 1: he um basically some look like I'm just I'm not
19:00
Speaker 1: going to take the risk of coming in today if
19:02
Speaker 1: I don't need to. And I've sort of done that
19:04
Speaker 1: where I've been going in, but I've also been holding
19:06
Speaker 1: myself back because that's the hardest things. There used to
19:08
Speaker 1: be this ethos of going to the office, no matter
19:10
Speaker 1: whether or not you're sick. And that's really and especially
19:14
Speaker 1: in football culture, and that's something that we've had to
19:16
Speaker 1: really pivot away from and remind people that actually that
19:18
Speaker 1: does not make you a hero anymore. To your best
19:21
Speaker 1: to keep everybody safe. Cassie, your Scott. How many times
19:25
Speaker 1: have you been in the rubber hallway or somewhere and
19:27
Speaker 1: seen a player and had to go no, no no, no, no, no,
19:29
Speaker 1: you can't do that or has that been I mean,
19:32
Speaker 1: because I'm sure you're young, people are making mistakes and
19:35
Speaker 1: you're trying to minimize that situation. I have taken upon
19:38
Speaker 1: myself to to kind of police that on a daily
19:41
Speaker 1: basis throughout the rubber hallway. Uh, numerous times the day
19:45
Speaker 1: I remind guys to put on masks or separate or
19:49
Speaker 1: tell them to look at their little tracker and you know,
19:52
Speaker 1: say listen, this is blinking what red? You know you
19:54
Speaker 1: guys need to separate. Um. But it's a continual reminder
19:58
Speaker 1: throughout the day. At at old times, you know, we
20:01
Speaker 1: we try to remind guys and have masks that are
20:03
Speaker 1: available post practice and you know, and educate them throughout
20:07
Speaker 1: the hall. Um. I have shifted offices a little bit.
20:11
Speaker 1: So I'm really president in the rubber hallway, which has
20:13
Speaker 1: kind of helped me just to be able to police
20:14
Speaker 1: that a little bit and and and remind guys as
20:17
Speaker 1: they walk by. Um, and I've just really adopted it.
20:20
Speaker 1: I think it's you know, you're not always everyone's favorite.
20:23
Speaker 1: Not everyone loves to be told to follow the rules
20:25
Speaker 1: and put a mask on. Absolutely, but you know, it's
20:27
Speaker 1: just how this season is. And and I want, you know,
20:30
Speaker 1: just as much as anyone for us to be able
20:31
Speaker 1: to play football. And I know that's the safest way
20:34
Speaker 1: to do it. But Scott, that was to be expected, right,
20:37
Speaker 1: I mean with guys coming in and learning a new
20:41
Speaker 1: way of life, which for these guys, football has been
20:43
Speaker 1: a way of life most of their lives. Those habits,
20:47
Speaker 1: I'm sure those were discussions beforehand. And these habits are
20:50
Speaker 1: going to be, you know, hard to let go. We
20:53
Speaker 1: have to work at. Yeah, I mean there were some
20:54
Speaker 1: early discussions back in the spring where I mean, if
20:57
Speaker 1: you look at the NBA in terms of going to
21:00
Speaker 1: complete bubble option, is that being kind of one extreme
21:03
Speaker 1: where they completely quarantined themselves off. And obviously that's the
21:06
Speaker 1: most absolute way to minimize exposure. But there were some
21:10
Speaker 1: conversation conversations, and I think it was just from a
21:14
Speaker 1: practicality standpoint of trying to get the volume of people
21:18
Speaker 1: that are involved with the football team into quarantine. The
21:21
Speaker 1: main basketball is vastly different. If you look at the
21:23
Speaker 1: sheer number of players and staff that they have, it's
21:27
Speaker 1: more practical for them to do that versus a football
21:29
Speaker 1: team and the hundreds of people that are involved. I mean,
21:32
Speaker 1: there was some brainstorming of trying to talk that out
21:35
Speaker 1: of doing that, and they're just there were so many
21:38
Speaker 1: issues that would not have been able to have been
21:40
Speaker 1: managed going that route with the football team. So then
21:43
Speaker 1: it was like, okay, well, how can we do it
21:45
Speaker 1: and try to mitigate exposure as much as possible? And
21:48
Speaker 1: that's kind of the route we've gone. And you know, look,
21:51
Speaker 1: I think, um, we all it has going well the
21:54
Speaker 1: first couple of weeks of training camp. I think we
21:56
Speaker 1: can all say that we're happy with the way that
21:59
Speaker 1: it's gone, but nobody knows kind of how the season's
22:03
Speaker 1: gonna unfold. Um, you know, obviously kids going back to school,
22:07
Speaker 1: there's gonna be increased exposures, you know, externally, and how
22:11
Speaker 1: that affects us. So there's gonna have to be a
22:14
Speaker 1: you know, consistent mindfulness on all of our parts when
22:17
Speaker 1: it comes to our behaviors and patterns and our exposure
22:20
Speaker 1: for this year, that's going to be continue to be different.
22:24
Speaker 1: I'm not sure which one of you should answer this,
22:26
Speaker 1: so I just kind of put it out there and
22:27
Speaker 1: here it feels comfortable. Are the protocols and the rules
22:30
Speaker 1: you guys have in play? Is it all from the NFL?
22:34
Speaker 1: Is there anything that teams can do beyond that? Or
22:38
Speaker 1: is it all pretty much? Hey, we're sticking to best practices,
22:41
Speaker 1: But is there anything where teams can say, hey, we're
22:43
Speaker 1: seeing something that we need to do that's not necessarily
22:46
Speaker 1: on the list. I mean, I'll answer from mine. I mean,
22:49
Speaker 1: the protocol was an agreement between the NFL and the
22:52
Speaker 1: Players Association, and it is pretty specific across the board
22:55
Speaker 1: in terms of all those things we can do. There
22:58
Speaker 1: are some minoring areas of flexibility when it comes to
23:01
Speaker 1: how we might be able to test families of staff
23:04
Speaker 1: members and families and players. There's a little bit of flexibility,
23:07
Speaker 1: but there's still some protocols in terms of what you
23:09
Speaker 1: can and can't do. So I mean it really, and
23:12
Speaker 1: that was the only way this was going to work
23:14
Speaker 1: was to have a formal agreement, which, as you know,
23:17
Speaker 1: those things aren't always easy to come by. There's a
23:19
Speaker 1: lot of haggling and interest on both sides, but there's
23:23
Speaker 1: there is a little bit, but there is. There is
23:25
Speaker 1: very little wiggle room. And the protocol it is, it
23:27
Speaker 1: is pretty strict across the board of how we're to
23:30
Speaker 1: function and I would said that John, where there's opportunities
23:33
Speaker 1: for us to be better than sort of what the
23:36
Speaker 1: recommendation is from the league, we're doing that. So we're
23:39
Speaker 1: making a lot of capital improvements to the stadium to
23:42
Speaker 1: make sure that there's additional partitions to make more things touchless.
23:46
Speaker 1: Some of those are required, some of them aren't. But
23:48
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, if we can improve
23:50
Speaker 1: on something and we're able to do it, we're going
23:52
Speaker 1: to do it. Um We've also increased cleaning, increased the
23:56
Speaker 1: auditing of cleaning, increased security in certain areas because we're
24:00
Speaker 1: only the way that the virus spreads. We're only going
24:03
Speaker 1: to be as safe and as strong as the sort
24:06
Speaker 1: of least compliant person right or our weakest link overall,
24:09
Speaker 1: and so wherever we can. We're trying to make additional
24:13
Speaker 1: improvements so that we are at a minimum as good as,
24:16
Speaker 1: if not better than, what's required under legal roles. Ask
24:19
Speaker 1: each one of you, Cassie, what's been the biggest challenge
24:24
Speaker 1: in all this that maybe somebody who's not in your
24:27
Speaker 1: role wouldn't grasp For me, I think the biggest challenge
24:30
Speaker 1: is just a new reality of what my job description is.
24:33
Speaker 1: I think going in, you know, thinking I'm going to
24:36
Speaker 1: be an athletic trainer, you know, kind of get my
24:38
Speaker 1: feet wet, you know, treat on a day to day basis,
24:41
Speaker 1: do hydration field, set up. All of those things that
24:43
Speaker 1: I definitely thought were my job description has kind of
24:46
Speaker 1: been flipped on its head. So now it's very much
24:49
Speaker 1: now you're policing masks and dealing with testing first thing
24:52
Speaker 1: in the morning, and you know, handling protocols and waking
24:56
Speaker 1: up first thing in the morning to look at results.
24:58
Speaker 1: So I think just learning what is a new normal,
25:01
Speaker 1: which I think has generally been the biggest obstacle that
25:04
Speaker 1: as a whole, you know, in as an organization that
25:07
Speaker 1: we faced is just accepting what's the new normal? Um,
25:09
Speaker 1: you know, accepting all the new protocols, putting all of
25:12
Speaker 1: those into place, and just understanding what what that new
25:14
Speaker 1: normal looks like for everyone. Is it exhausting? How many
25:17
Speaker 1: hours asleep are you get? I'm getting more. At first,
25:22
Speaker 1: it was not a lot. I used to wake up
25:24
Speaker 1: first thing in the morning, very anxious about the test results. Um,
25:27
Speaker 1: so I'm doing better. But it's it definitely is you know,
25:31
Speaker 1: you take phone calls all day all summer. It was
25:33
Speaker 1: you know, phone calls all day, all night into the evening,
25:36
Speaker 1: wake up first thing the morning, do it all over again. So, uh,
25:40
Speaker 1: sleep is is not as much of a priority as
25:42
Speaker 1: COVID is right now for sure, Scott, biggest challenge in
25:46
Speaker 1: your world, Say yeah, I mean it's again, it's it's practicing,
25:51
Speaker 1: you know. And for us, remember at the end of
25:52
Speaker 1: all this, now we have to go back to football
25:55
Speaker 1: and the injuries that occurred with football and the issues
25:57
Speaker 1: that surround football. And that's why, you know, Cassie has
26:00
Speaker 1: been so critical and managing all this part of it.
26:03
Speaker 1: So the rest of their staff, Justin and Robbie and
26:05
Speaker 1: Rod and I could you know, go through the business
26:08
Speaker 1: of taking care of the football team. So you know,
26:11
Speaker 1: everything you normally do now has a different avenue that
26:14
Speaker 1: you have to approach it from, and you know, it's
26:17
Speaker 1: our job ultimately to try to make it as normal
26:19
Speaker 1: as we can for the players, even though it's not normal,
26:22
Speaker 1: but yet trying to be able to practice medicine and
26:25
Speaker 1: progress a football player through a rehabilitation as we normally
26:28
Speaker 1: would make the same question the biggest challenge, and does
26:31
Speaker 1: this still feel like something that's sort of squirming away
26:36
Speaker 1: from you every day? Is every day still the challenge?
26:38
Speaker 1: I guess, uh, yes and no, and so I guess
26:42
Speaker 1: I'll answer your question that way. So in addition and
26:45
Speaker 1: making sure that everyone's taken care of physically one of
26:49
Speaker 1: the things that I was really worried about early on,
26:50
Speaker 1: and I think that as an organization, especially with the
26:53
Speaker 1: mental health professional that we have with Dr Franco being
26:55
Speaker 1: a part of our team, we're trying to be thoughtful of.
26:59
Speaker 1: You also have to care of yourself mentally, So there's
27:01
Speaker 1: an added just layer of stress when people have some
27:04
Speaker 1: fear of the sickness, either for themselves or for their family.
27:07
Speaker 1: You got on top of that, and now we've completely
27:09
Speaker 1: changed how people are working and people like Scott have
27:12
Speaker 1: to learn how to use a computer, or just challenging
27:14
Speaker 1: in and of itself. Um, and then you know it,
27:18
Speaker 1: working from home for me has been great and easy,
27:21
Speaker 1: but I realized that that's not the environment that everyone
27:23
Speaker 1: else is living, and some people are working from basements
27:25
Speaker 1: or garages or wherever else they can while also playing
27:28
Speaker 1: remote school teacher, while also trying to take care of
27:30
Speaker 1: family members they didn't have a rise. And then the
27:33
Speaker 1: sad fact is that home isn't necessarily always the best
27:36
Speaker 1: or safest place where people especially women and children, or
27:39
Speaker 1: there's just higher incidents of depression. And so trying to
27:43
Speaker 1: remind people to take care of themselves while all of
27:46
Speaker 1: this is going on is challenging and finding the time
27:48
Speaker 1: for it. You add on top of that what happened
27:51
Speaker 1: over the summer in terms of the protests and the
27:53
Speaker 1: rights and the very good conversations and awareness that started
27:56
Speaker 1: to be had regarding raised relations. But but you can
27:59
Speaker 1: see people start to ray, and it's an understandable thing
28:02
Speaker 1: that's happening at this point. But so trying to just
28:04
Speaker 1: remind people that yes, we are living in a constant
28:06
Speaker 1: state of probably heightened stress, for that doesn't mean that
28:10
Speaker 1: you have to give up and stop taking care of
28:11
Speaker 1: yourself and doing the things that you need to do
28:13
Speaker 1: so that you can do the best that you can
28:15
Speaker 1: to get through it. UM. And then the other thing
28:17
Speaker 1: is that you know in March we started communicating people
28:20
Speaker 1: with regarding the virus. Dr Or and Kaplan gave us
28:23
Speaker 1: a lot of really good information that we were able
28:25
Speaker 1: to push out early on. But at some point I
28:27
Speaker 1: would say that there's definitely days where I was just
28:29
Speaker 1: looking at that email thinking, I don't I don't know
28:31
Speaker 1: what to say anymore, Like I don't I don't know
28:33
Speaker 1: what people want to hear anymore. I don't know what
28:35
Speaker 1: to say anymore. And I never thought that had become
28:36
Speaker 1: a daily germ blogger, but I did think that communicating
28:39
Speaker 1: with people was important, especially as they were adjusting and
28:42
Speaker 1: just trying to help people find other things to do.
28:45
Speaker 1: So whether it's communication about the virus and trying to
28:48
Speaker 1: find the really raw information from the CDC, which I
28:53
Speaker 1: think is good as compared to just watching the news,
28:55
Speaker 1: which sort of sent people down a bit of a
28:57
Speaker 1: downward spiral. UM. So make sure people have rival information
29:00
Speaker 1: sources and just feel like even though we're not on
29:03
Speaker 1: in the office, we can still stay connected, have information
29:06
Speaker 1: and putting a little bit of lightness in there from
29:08
Speaker 1: time to time. I want to close with each of
29:11
Speaker 1: you sort of looking ahead, Uh, Cassie, as you look forward, Uh,
29:17
Speaker 1: is your biggest challenge sort of? I guess keeping the
29:20
Speaker 1: players constantly diligent because I guess there's a there's a
29:27
Speaker 1: human nature thing of Okay, we've done okay for a
29:29
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Now we'll get slack. I mean, is
29:32
Speaker 1: that the biggest challenge? Is that the biggest obstacle? Or
29:35
Speaker 1: when you look at the season, what are you thinking
29:37
Speaker 1: most of Okay, I've got to I've got to stay
29:40
Speaker 1: on top of X. Yeah. For for me, I think
29:43
Speaker 1: the thing that scares me the most is when people
29:45
Speaker 1: um start saying you know, quote unquote football is football, um,
29:50
Speaker 1: and that that makes me nervous because you know, then
29:52
Speaker 1: people stop being as diligent. You know, people stop wearing masks,
29:56
Speaker 1: people stop socially distancing. You know, you get caught into
29:59
Speaker 1: this season and what it's normal, and and and instead
30:02
Speaker 1: of accepting that new normal and being very diligent and
30:06
Speaker 1: doing those things that gave us so much success in
30:08
Speaker 1: the beginning, they start to fade away. So, you know,
30:11
Speaker 1: kind of going back to the re education piece and
30:13
Speaker 1: and the new normal that we're trying to create. I
30:16
Speaker 1: think it's really important to continue to do that and
30:18
Speaker 1: to continue to promote people to be safe and in
30:22
Speaker 1: diligent in all these aspects, because I think that's where
30:24
Speaker 1: you can start to fall off. You know, when you
30:26
Speaker 1: when you start to be content and complacent in your
30:29
Speaker 1: day to day you go a few days without having
30:31
Speaker 1: any new positive cases and people start saying, oh, well,
30:34
Speaker 1: you know I tested, I test every day, I'm good,
30:37
Speaker 1: and you know, constantly re educating people that just because
30:40
Speaker 1: your test came back negative today does not mean you
30:42
Speaker 1: you know you have COVID today. You know you're always
30:44
Speaker 1: twenty four hours behind playing this catchup game, and reminding
30:47
Speaker 1: people of that and continue to be diligent is definitely
30:50
Speaker 1: uh kind of my focus moving forward. Uh, Scott, I
30:54
Speaker 1: want to make sure I'm not missing anything from your
30:56
Speaker 1: end um anything so far we haven't talked about. It's
31:00
Speaker 1: important issue to you that people know about this and
31:03
Speaker 1: then you know, again, what do you think your challenges
31:05
Speaker 1: will be going forward? Well? I think one thing that
31:08
Speaker 1: the challenges We're in training camp right now and for
31:12
Speaker 1: the most part regardless of a COVID year, most people
31:15
Speaker 1: are in kind of isolated mode and while they're in
31:17
Speaker 1: training camp, meeting players, coaches, everybody, min it's just work, home, sleep,
31:21
Speaker 1: even if we're not staying at the hotel. So a
31:24
Speaker 1: little bit of this was built in for it to
31:25
Speaker 1: go well during training camp. So the the concern is
31:29
Speaker 1: moving forward once we get into the regular season mode
31:32
Speaker 1: and people kind of shift into their regular patterns where
31:35
Speaker 1: people are traveling more and coming in. That's, you know,
31:37
Speaker 1: as Cassie mentioned, that's kind of our concern. Can we
31:40
Speaker 1: continue this more of an isolated mode as we move forward.
31:44
Speaker 1: But I think for people on the outside to understand
31:47
Speaker 1: is that, you know, just to kind of accept the
31:50
Speaker 1: new normal for now. You know, we don't know how,
31:53
Speaker 1: we don't know what the new normal is gonna be,
31:55
Speaker 1: but for right now, is just to accept. And you know,
31:58
Speaker 1: hear the term social distance, and we'd rather a physical
32:00
Speaker 1: distance because what we all have to do is learn
32:03
Speaker 1: how to connect differently, just like in the NFL. You know,
32:06
Speaker 1: we've never had virtual meetings before, but now it's commonplace.
32:09
Speaker 1: So we've adjusted in a way we never could have imagined,
32:13
Speaker 1: and yet it's going well. And there'll be a lot
32:15
Speaker 1: that comes out of this that will look back and say,
32:17
Speaker 1: you know, we got better through this process because now
32:20
Speaker 1: we have different ways of connecting. So I hope everybody
32:23
Speaker 1: understands that you know you're gonna have to you can
32:26
Speaker 1: still connect. It's physical distancing, doesn't have to be social distancing,
32:30
Speaker 1: but learn how to connect in a new way. I
32:32
Speaker 1: know you're involved. We've got trained societies and speak to
32:35
Speaker 1: a lot of people all over the country. Level of confidence.
32:40
Speaker 1: Is this a cautious optimism? Uh is gonna work? Or
32:43
Speaker 1: is it just wait and see? Or how would you
32:45
Speaker 1: describe sort of the feeling that this can get it done.
32:51
Speaker 1: I can say we're adopting the approach you take in sports,
32:53
Speaker 1: which is focused on today. And I don't say that
32:57
Speaker 1: to avoid the future. I say we have our protocols
33:00
Speaker 1: and we are focused on today, this week, and very
33:03
Speaker 1: the immediate future, you know, because we really we're planning
33:07
Speaker 1: for the future and traveling on road trips, you know.
33:10
Speaker 1: So I would certainly say there's there's coustious optimism, but
33:13
Speaker 1: you know, we we have to keep our focus on
33:15
Speaker 1: the day. There there's plenty of for us to do
33:17
Speaker 1: right now to make sure today and this week goes well,
33:21
Speaker 1: and there'll be a time to worry about the next step. MAGA.
33:25
Speaker 1: We'll close with the couple with you, UM, biggest challenge
33:29
Speaker 1: for you logistically going forward with this, I guess it's
33:31
Speaker 1: just continuing step by step each day or just something more.
33:36
Speaker 1: I think that's right. So it was really important to
33:37
Speaker 1: us to keep our people safe while they were working
33:39
Speaker 1: through um the summer months. It was really important for
33:43
Speaker 1: us to make sure that things were in place or
33:44
Speaker 1: when our players came back, and that we had the
33:47
Speaker 1: right both physical and just sort of safety protocols in
33:50
Speaker 1: place and cleaning protocols and whatnot. And now we are
33:52
Speaker 1: one of seven NFL teams that are permitted to have fans,
33:56
Speaker 1: are planning on having fans, And so I do think
34:00
Speaker 1: that people, as a sort of the corollary towards Scott
34:03
Speaker 1: and Cassie were saying, I think that people are really
34:06
Speaker 1: hungry for something fun to do. And I know that
34:08
Speaker 1: the feeling that I got when I was watching baseball,
34:10
Speaker 1: even based all no fans, was a nice sense of relief,
34:13
Speaker 1: or even the feeling of going to wrestling every week
34:15
Speaker 1: is a really nice sense of relief to have entertainment back,
34:18
Speaker 1: so I'm really hopeful that we're able to have a
34:20
Speaker 1: football season, and then when we bring people in, I
34:23
Speaker 1: think that as long as people follow the safety protocols
34:26
Speaker 1: and keep their physical distance from each other, it's possible.
34:29
Speaker 1: And we're doing everything we can to make sure that's
34:31
Speaker 1: the case. But making sure that our fans can come
34:34
Speaker 1: in safely and that we do that right is the
34:36
Speaker 1: next big challenge ahead of us. Is there a key
34:40
Speaker 1: to this season coming off from a league wide level
34:42
Speaker 1: or is that just a question we're gonna have to watch.
34:44
Speaker 1: I think the key is continuing to be vigilant and
34:46
Speaker 1: not getting complacent that this thing is invisible. And yes
34:49
Speaker 1: we're all back together, and yes we're all going into
34:51
Speaker 1: the office, But the easiest thing for me to do
34:53
Speaker 1: is just keep my distance from other people. And I
34:56
Speaker 1: think that that's one that people sort of underestimate, like
34:58
Speaker 1: just start there, start there, and then wear a mask
35:00
Speaker 1: and wash your hands. And I know that those are
35:03
Speaker 1: the three basic things that we've been hearing now since March,
35:05
Speaker 1: but but those seem to be the most effective tactics. Well,
35:10
Speaker 1: this is a topic that I'm sure if we dug
35:13
Speaker 1: down deep into every topic. We could go on forever,
35:15
Speaker 1: but um, I appreciate the three of you doing this.
35:18
Speaker 1: I know every day is incredibly busy for all of you.
35:21
Speaker 1: The Cassie Tell, Scott, true luck, Mega Prak, thank you
35:24
Speaker 1: very much for joining us, and uh, hopefully at some
35:27
Speaker 1: point at the end of this season we have another
35:29
Speaker 1: one of these where we're giving each other high fives
35:32
Speaker 1: virtually and saying great season. So thank you all very much.
35:38
Speaker 1: Probably we'd like to thank the COVID Trio, if you will,
35:42
Speaker 1: for joining us in the Ozone podcast. Dave, I'll admit
35:45
Speaker 1: when I first started talking to you about this segment,
35:49
Speaker 1: I knew it would be topical. I knew it would
35:52
Speaker 1: be informative, wasn't sure how interesting would be. You're dealing
35:57
Speaker 1: with a lot of science, and I failed science many
35:59
Speaker 1: many times. But I really thought that three of them
36:02
Speaker 1: did a nice job putting into Lanan's terms, understandable terms,
36:08
Speaker 1: grass will terms, if you will, what they're dealing with.
36:11
Speaker 1: And I frankly was fascinated, uh by most everything they
36:16
Speaker 1: all had to say about this. I think people will
36:18
Speaker 1: be too. Yeah, it's funny, John, when you talked about
36:22
Speaker 1: being interesting. So we take this a few days ago,
36:26
Speaker 1: kind of after office hours. I had the idea of like, Okay,
36:30
Speaker 1: I'm gonna Usually I'm the one who records it. I'm
36:32
Speaker 1: the silent one and this whole thing, and usually, uh,
36:36
Speaker 1: a lot of times I'll record it and just monerate,
36:39
Speaker 1: make sure it's going good, and sometimes I will do
36:41
Speaker 1: a few other things. I'll look at my phone. I
36:43
Speaker 1: found myself. Yeah, yeah, I had my plan a multitask
36:49
Speaker 1: and not really pay attention too much, just to make
36:51
Speaker 1: sure it sounded good. And I ended up not doing
36:54
Speaker 1: any work and just listening to the interview. It was
36:56
Speaker 1: pretty fascinating, especially for someone who John You're not coming
37:01
Speaker 1: in the stadium, but I am, and he was kind
37:03
Speaker 1: of living through it a little bit as we go along,
37:05
Speaker 1: and it's just it's just interesting how much, and we've
37:08
Speaker 1: kind of talked about this before here is how much
37:11
Speaker 1: care and time the NFL has tried to take to
37:15
Speaker 1: to get their hands around this thing, and and how
37:18
Speaker 1: it's disseminated down to the team level. And I thought
37:23
Speaker 1: it was just fascinating to hear kind of Omega, who's
37:26
Speaker 1: on the business side of things, to the football trainers
37:29
Speaker 1: how much they've kind of put in and put and
37:32
Speaker 1: thought about it and try to think about how to
37:34
Speaker 1: implement all these protocols. I thought it was pretty interesting,
37:37
Speaker 1: pretty topical, and I don't think anybody that works the
37:39
Speaker 1: media was good at science or math. I think that's
37:41
Speaker 1: why we work work at what we work in. Now. Yeah,
37:46
Speaker 1: it's a you're right, first of all, and I I
37:51
Speaker 1: think people who listen to this, if they listened to
37:56
Speaker 1: with an objective ear there's a lot of criticism of
38:01
Speaker 1: a college football in the NFL. People like to criticize
38:04
Speaker 1: this day and age. It's the Twitter verse. I get it.
38:07
Speaker 1: But there was some initial when training camp began. Oh,
38:12
Speaker 1: the NFL had six months. They couldn't do a better
38:15
Speaker 1: job with COVID than X. I mean that was always
38:18
Speaker 1: a it was something you heard people say, and I
38:22
Speaker 1: would maintain, you're talking about thirty two teams, and I
38:26
Speaker 1: think MEGA did a good job of explain to people
38:29
Speaker 1: what this process was. You're talking about a league that
38:32
Speaker 1: has to legislate in in what thirty different cities. I'm
38:38
Speaker 1: not sure if legislates the right word, but it's to
38:41
Speaker 1: come up with plans for thirty different cities with thirty
38:45
Speaker 1: different situations in their local area. Communicate all that, get feedback,
38:54
Speaker 1: going back and forth, and then there's the reality of Okay,
38:59
Speaker 1: you've led is slated this, You've got your rules, which
39:04
Speaker 1: she has been the disseminator of the information, if you will.
39:08
Speaker 1: And then you realize there's the reality of okay, now
39:12
Speaker 1: we have to have the trainer level that's got to
39:16
Speaker 1: educate ninety players fifty coaches every day on this. So
39:25
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think it is easy. You're saying, no, oh,
39:28
Speaker 1: they had five months. You know, this is a daily thing,
39:33
Speaker 1: a daily challenge. And as I asked Cassie and Scott,
39:38
Speaker 1: I imagine they're dreaming about this at night. You know
39:41
Speaker 1: when you get so into something that you have necessary nightmares,
39:44
Speaker 1: but you're thinking about it at night, and all of
39:46
Speaker 1: a sudden you wake up at three in the morning
39:47
Speaker 1: and you realize, wait a minute, I've never talked to
39:49
Speaker 1: that part, you know. I imagine they're having those dreams
39:52
Speaker 1: about COVID. I imagine their dreams are COVID. I imagine
39:56
Speaker 1: Cassie's dreaming, you know, about having to argue with guys
39:59
Speaker 1: in the hall about their masks. Yeah. I just can't
40:02
Speaker 1: imagine that this is not a a daily obsession, and uh,
40:08
Speaker 1: kudos to all of them for keeping their heads around
40:13
Speaker 1: what has to be a constantly changing issue. You said
40:17
Speaker 1: that had four months to kind of work on this.
40:19
Speaker 1: It's they used it well. I mean obviously when sure,
40:22
Speaker 1: what do you see what's going on with college football
40:25
Speaker 1: and some of the other sports. You know, football was
40:27
Speaker 1: kind of the one that was gonna go last, and
40:29
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they're kind of going at the
40:30
Speaker 1: same time as the other professional sports. So far, they're
40:33
Speaker 1: making it work. I mean, the statistics bear that out
40:35
Speaker 1: as far as positivity rate in the NFL. And they
40:39
Speaker 1: keep on talking about, oh and the games start, it's
40:42
Speaker 1: all going to change, and I get that it's going
40:44
Speaker 1: to change, But they've gotten this thing with the camp
40:48
Speaker 1: so far. Their plan has gotten it down to I
40:51
Speaker 1: don't want to say zero, but you know, not going
40:54
Speaker 1: would let's make sure we don't die jinks anything here.
40:57
Speaker 1: But I think after what a two and a half
41:01
Speaker 1: almost three weeks of camp, it's hard to argue that
41:05
Speaker 1: they haven't been successful with camp. You know, Jaguars are
41:08
Speaker 1: now the one player and the league is the same,
41:12
Speaker 1: so I get that there's gonna be contact once all
41:15
Speaker 1: this starts. But their idea is to keep cases to
41:20
Speaker 1: a minimum and have this thing controlled. You can say
41:24
Speaker 1: waiting and see all you want, but I think most
41:27
Speaker 1: people thought there would be more flare ups during training
41:30
Speaker 1: camp than there has been. So let's wait and see
41:34
Speaker 1: before we're skeptics and say, oh, I don't never work.
41:37
Speaker 1: You know, I've had a feeling since day one from
41:39
Speaker 1: talking to different people that that they're pretty confident that
41:43
Speaker 1: they can pull this off. Not perfect, but they can
41:46
Speaker 1: pull it off and get a season in. And you're
41:49
Speaker 1: the morem around with, the more I see what they're doing,
41:50
Speaker 1: I I tend to think they will to Yeah. I
41:54
Speaker 1: think the biggest thing is what's going to happen when
41:56
Speaker 1: the season starts, and like not teams getting together, about
42:00
Speaker 1: when teams start off oh and three or oh and
42:02
Speaker 1: four and players start getting less interested in football, and
42:07
Speaker 1: you know how it gets with teams that are aren't
42:09
Speaker 1: very good. The teams keep the players interested and keep
42:12
Speaker 1: them in a situation where football still matters. And for
42:16
Speaker 1: me to play football, I need to stay healthy. I
42:18
Speaker 1: think as long as that's the case and the players
42:21
Speaker 1: follow along, I think they'll they'll get it in. It's
42:25
Speaker 1: just there's some some other factors out there in the
42:27
Speaker 1: world that players need to have responsibility about. Yeah, say
42:30
Speaker 1: this is sort of closed. I think if every team
42:33
Speaker 1: has people like uh, like Cassie and Scott who are
42:36
Speaker 1: really the people who are talking to players. So much
42:39
Speaker 1: of it is emphasis and mindset and it it really
42:43
Speaker 1: feels like, again, you're talking about ninety mostly young kids
42:48
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, who have to be your
42:49
Speaker 1: minded every day. But I can't imagine from talking to
42:52
Speaker 1: them that it's not first and foremost in the player's mind,
42:55
Speaker 1: maybe more so than it was in March. The health
43:00
Speaker 1: factors of this, I imagine it's been it's it's been
43:03
Speaker 1: beaten into him every day. So I hopefully people around
43:07
Speaker 1: the league are listening to those people and grasping that
43:11
Speaker 1: it's about more than football. And I'm I'm on the
43:13
Speaker 1: soap off, you know. I guess my takeaway from the
43:16
Speaker 1: podcast is that, you know, combined with being over there
43:20
Speaker 1: at practice seeing the protocols, nothing with this thing. But
43:24
Speaker 1: I sure have a better feeling that they're going to
43:26
Speaker 1: have a fighting chance to pull this off then maybe
43:30
Speaker 1: I did when I was sitting here July tw you know,
43:32
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, hopefully people take that same takeaway
43:36
Speaker 1: from the podcast. I think they will with that in mind.
43:40
Speaker 1: I want to thank Dave you can this is I
43:41
Speaker 1: always do, for making this thing work. I want to
43:44
Speaker 1: thank Joe Fortunado for making me sound better than I am.
43:47
Speaker 1: I certainly don't think this one sucked. I think this
43:50
Speaker 1: one was informative, and I really liked the way our
43:53
Speaker 1: guests today enunciated what is an impossible issue too true
44:00
Speaker 1: really get understandable. I think they did a great job
44:03
Speaker 1: of making people understand what's going on with an incredibly
44:05
Speaker 1: complex issue. I want to thank them, and we'll talk
44:08
Speaker 1: to everybody next week.