It’s simple: NFL players, coaches and trainers need to get serious about following COVID protocols

Steelers fans are mad as hell, and some want to walk up to Ravens’ head coach John Harbaugh and sock him right in the nose.

I hear ya, there. I want to do that, too, but mainly because he’s a Harbaugh. As for the other people that want to punch him in the nose, their motivation stems from anger over the Steelers’ game—the Thanksgiving Night special that was ultimately (and, seemingly, finally) moved to Tuesday evening due to countless Ravens’ players and staff members either testing positive for COVID-19 or winding up in quarantine due to contact tracing—being moved again to Wednesday afternoon at 3:40 p.m.

They’re angry about the hypocrisy over the Ravens’ game being pushed back, seemingly due to Harbaugh and his players crying, whining and reportedly threatening a wildcat strike, while other compromised matchups had to go on as scheduled—including Sunday’s quarterback-depleted contest between the Broncos and Saints.

Again, I hear ya. It’s stupid. The NFL’s response to the current COVID crisis has been all over the place. But while the NFL’s response has been frustrating more often than not, we do know that it’s going to respond. We might not like how inconsistent the responses have been, but we do know it’s going to react to positive tests, contract tracing, breaches of protocol, etc. And if this latest scheduling fiasco involving the Steelers and Ravens has taught us anything, it’s that the NFL will not force teams to forfeit games. The league doesn’t even appear to be willing to pull the trigger on a full-fledged cancellation, which could lead to a Week 18. Why? Because that could ultimately lead to a Week 27 if we continue to have situations like this pop up from now until Week 17. Apparently, it’s willing to continue to push games back, day after day, until it has exhausted the resource of time.

Maybe the NFL has been inconsistent with its response to COVID, but that doesn’t change the fact that players, coaches, trainers, etc. have also been inconsistent with following the rules.

The inability to follow the rules is what caused every single Broncos’ signal caller to be placed into quarantine for the game against New Orleans, a 31-3 laugher in-which a practice squad player—Kendall Hinton, a backup quarterback in college before converting to receiver—completed one pass as the emergency quarterback. Jeff Driskel tested positive for COVID, last week, and it was revealed that he and his fellow quarterbacks—including starter Drew Lock—were hanging out and holding meetings while not wearing masks.

Had those guys simply followed the rules, maybe one of them would have been eligible to play against the Saints.

Just wear the darn masks. Just follow the darn rules.

And that is why I want to punch the next person I see who is wearing a mask underneath his or her nose (well, maybe not punch them, but certainly squirt hot sauce into their nostrils).

Everyone has an opinion on COVID-19 and how serious it is or isn’t.

I go to the gym almost daily, and I’m asked upon checking in to please wear a mask during my workout. I comply. Unfortunately, I’m one of the few who does. I see many folks at the gym wearing their masks below their noses or not at all. I hear plenty of conversations like, “This bleep is fake, bro.” “My body, my choice, bro.” Certainly, NFL bros, like gym bros and the rest of society, have differing opinions on the Coronavirus and whether it should be taken seriously. Perhaps, they have strong opinions about masks, social distancing and whether they should be allowed to do what they want.

Who has more access to players than a trainer? Maybe the Ravens’ trainer had strong opinions about COVID-19. “This bleep is fake, bro.” Perhaps that was why he didn’t report symptoms and didn’t wear his contract tracing tracking device.

What’s Harbaugh’s opinion on COVID-19? How about masks? I always see him wearing his, but how often does he take it down to scream at officials during games? How about his assistant coaches? Do they wear them properly, or do they do the under the nose thing? Was Harbaugh aware that his ground zero trainer, who has since been suspended by the team for violating COVID protocol, wasn’t wearing his tracking device? Did he even care? Did he encourage it?

As I alluded to earlier, one of the biggest problems with the NFL, right now, is so many people involved with the league aren’t following protocols before, during and after games. Folks might think some of these rules defy logic, and, I have to say, when it comes to things like not being allowed to hug opposing players after you’ve spent three hours bashing into them, I see your point.

But that’s not the point, neither is the 98.5 percent survival rate for young and healthy people. That might be true, and you might like to point it out a million times while calling me a sheep for wearing a mask, but the NFL doesn’t care about that. Again, the NFL is going to react a certain way to a positive test. It’s going to react a certain way to a player who may have been in close proximity to an infected person.

The NFL wants its players, coaches and trainers to wear their masks at certain times and in a certain manner. The NFL wants its personnel to behave a certain way before, during and after games. The NFL doesn’t care about the opinions of you, me or even its employees. The NFL wants things done a particular way.

We need to stop acting like opinions matter in all of this and just acknowledge that things must be done the way the NFL wants them to be done.

It’s simple: Follow the rules or deal with the consequences of an NFL game on a Wednesday afternoon.