Days after Jason McCourty offered a blunt assessment that the NFL and NFL Players Association “don’t care” about the Patriots’ wellbeing, Devin McCourty was asked if he felt better about the league’s handling of the decision to reschedule New England’s Week 5 matchup with the Broncos.
“I don’t really know,” McCourty said of the league’s response. “I think for us it’s figuring out what’s next, once the game got moved to this Sunday, it was kind of figuring out what we needed to do.”
McCourty, 33, gave a matter-of-fact assessment of being given an impromptu bye week due to the matchup against the Broncos being moved to this Sunday (which had been the team’s original bye).
“You take your three-day bye,” said McCourty. “That’s what I did. Took my three-day bye week. Sat on the couch with my wife, had some wine, had a good time of the off-days, and enjoyed that part of it. Like I said earlier, you have to control what you can control.”
As other Patriots players have done, McCourty praised New England’s coaching staff, and Bill Belichick specifically, for helping the team through the continued uncertainty of the 2020 season.
“Once things were back in our court of figuring out what we can and can’t do, I think our coaching staff [and] Bill has done a good job of, hey, this is forever kind of changing and very fluid, but once we get it, it’s like this is what we’ve got, this is what we’re going to do,” McCourty noted. “I think all of us have just fallen in line as far as what Wednesday looks like for now. Then we’ll figure out what Thursday looks like, and then go forward from there.”
Simultaneous to the ongoing questions over the team and possible COVID-19 positive tests, New England is trying to prepare for the Broncos game.
Several Patriots players even took the precaution of staying in a hotel, so as to self-isolate and not expose family members.
“It’s just been that kind of year so far,” McCourty added. “It was [us] at home, then in a hotel for about a week, then back home. So it’s just kind of [about] staying focused and then within all of that, it’s watching film on Denver, it’s getting prepared to play a game. I think that’s the biggest thing we talked about as players, is not losing sight of.”
McCourty pointed out that not only is the team used to video meetings — given their extensive use during an offseason that included the national outbreak of COVID-19 — but it also gives players on the COVID-19/reserve list a chance to continue participating in team activities.
“The thing with virtual meetings is everybody’s able to be on a virtual meeting, everybody’s able to crack jokes and laugh and then the same thing with our text messages and different things like that,” said McCourty. “We haven’t cast off anyone that’s tested positive, and kicked them off the island. They’ve still been with us and hang out as much as we’ve all been able to hang out by looking at a computer screen.”
Confronted with a Patriots-specific COVID-19 outbreak, McCourty explained how it’s been a learning experience.
He also mentioned that the Titans’ experience — with sporadic positive tests even after the team shut down its facility — showed how it’s difficult to definitively known when players should return to team activities.
Still, he’s encouraged each day when no new positive tests are found.
“I think we all learned a lot from just watching Tennessee, of the incubation period, of seeing how long that they had positive tests here and there come up, I think a lot blame went to them at first,” said McCourty. “And it’s like no, if you watch the virus, once it gets in, there’s an incubation period. Once we’re moving further and further away from that and we continue to get negative tests it’s definitely a good feeling for all the guys to get back in there.”
Looking at the remainder of the season, the veteran safety is certain this won’t be the last time the NFL has to deal with the ongoing pandemic.
“The 2020 NFL season is changing, it’s going to continue to change,” McCourty predicted. “I highly doubt this is going to be the last couple cases of COVID that we see around the league.”
The Patriots, McCourty reasoned, are similar to everyone dealing with COVID-19 in terms of the ongoing uncertainty and anxiety.
“If you’re honest, I think it’s any time you do any of this,” he said of his nerves during each test. “Obviously with a virus going around, it’s prevalent everywhere, so whenever you get tested, especially once someone else tests positive, there’s always an anxious nervousness. I’m sure it’s the same way if you guys had to go get tested. You have that same feeling in your gut, like I should be negative, I’ve paid attention, I haven’t been out, but you just never know. I feel like that’s how this virus has kind of been for everybody. For all of us, there’s always some nerves each time that we go to take the test, especially with what we’re dealing with now.”
Yet as New England tries to move beyond its October run-in with COVID-19, McCourty is taking it with a day-by-day hopefulness.
“It’s like each day you’re just waiting to see and hoping, it’s like Christmas, you’re just hoping for all negative tests so you can move forward and continue to build but again, it’s not in our control, so whatever it ends up being, we just have to figure out what’s the next step and go from there and be ready to play Sunday at a [p.m.]”
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