What Richard Sherman and Jimmy Garoppolo are saying about new COVID protocols
No reporters were around Richard Sherman as he took the stage inside the Levi’s Stadium auditorium Tuesday for his first interview session of the summer. But he wore his mask anyway with an understanding it would be an important message to send to anyone watching. Sherman’s news conferences, after all, have a tendency to go viral.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo took his mask off, but had it close by as he spoke with reporters over Zoom, saying, “Those little things go a long way” when it comes to being safe and following the new protocols inside 49ers headquarters to avoid an outbreak of COVID-19.
This is the new normal.
For the time being, there will be no in-person interviews between players and reporters. Around 10 media members will be allowed to watch practice in person when they begin later this month but the interview sessions with coaches are expected to happen over Zoom anyway. The media work room inside Levi’s Stadium, where scribes write the majority of their stories during the season, will be closed.
Those are just a handful of changes being made for the 49ers as they resume their full-team work this week ahead of the regular season while the country continues to deal with rising numbers of coronavirus cases. And like baseball, whose season is up in the air after 34 players and staffers from the Cardinals and Marlins have tested positive, the NFL won’t have a bubble.
Players are responsible for not contracting the virus when they leave the facility each day, and the league has set up disciplinary actions that could be levied if players do things like go to bars, social gatherings or anywhere else a large number of people might gather.
Sherman, a likely Hall of Famer and vice president of the NFL Players Association, has been a leader and tone-setter since coming to San Francisco in 2018. Yet he made clear Tuesday he has little interest in babysitting his teammates to make sure they aren’t putting themselves or their families at risk.
Because it’s likely the smartest and most disciplined teams when it comes to COVID-19 will be the most successful this season, while others will risk missing key players who contract the virus.
“At the end of the day, these are grown men and these are pros,” Sherman said. “If they’re going to trick it off, they’ll get quarantined, they’ll get replaced. It’ll be unfortunate. That’s why we have testing every day, so they can catch it quick.”
The 49ers have a Super Bowl on their minds this season after allowing the Kansas City Chiefs to come back in the fourth quarter last February. And now that they have more continuity than most teams — with head coach Kyle Shanahan entering his fourth season and the club returning 18 of 22 starters — Sherman believes his team is built to withstand the challenges brought on by the pandemic.
Being in Santa Clara, known more for tech than discos, has something to do with it.
“There’s not a huge night life. It’s not like we’re in Atlanta or Texas or Miami or Las Vegas or L.A. where there’s a lot of distractions, a lot of places you can go, a lot of things you can do to get yourself in trouble,” Sherman said.
“I think our team is incredibly focused because of how close we were to winning the Super Bowl last year. And that taste in their mouths is a bitter discipline in itself. That hunger, that angst, is discipline in itself.”
There are a slew of changes inside team headquarters. Shanahan mentioned the only place to hold full-team meetings to allow for proper social distancing is a fancy club area on the west side of the stadium, forcing players and staffers to walk a few hundred yards from their normal facilities on the east side.
“It’s kind of a far walk,” Shanahan said.
Players are forced to mask up, social distance and wear bands on their wrists to help with contract tracing should a player test positive. As of Tuesday afternoon, only reserve running back Jeff Wilson Jr. remains on the reserve/COVID-19 list after either testing positive or being around someone who has. Receiver Richie James Jr. was removed Monday. Getting off the list takes two negative tests over a 24-hour span or remaining away for at least 10 days before coming back and testing negatively, the team spokesman told The Bee.
Said Garoppolo: “There’s some things you can control and some things that you can’t. So the things that are out of our control, you try not to think too much about. At the end of the day, you want to be safe and guys are going home to their families. It’s a fine line there. But I think the NFL’s done a great job of — I can’t tell you how many precautions we’re taking, the testing, being 6 feet apart. There’s a million things that go into it. But, it’s been good so far.”
Part of the new protocols included getting rid of all four preseason games in an effort to curb teams from spreading the virus to each other. For players like Sherman and Garoppolo, missing out on the preseason won’t mean much as they wouldn’t be expected to play much in those games anyway.
The players on the fringe of the roster and in heated competition for roster spots will be the ones most impacted. Shanahan even said he might have tackling drills during padded practices, which is something rarely seen in the modern NFL.
Shanahan said Monday he’s used to having all the answers for his players and coaches in normal circumstances, but the COVID-19 protocols have caused uncertainty that’s going to overshadow the hype that normally accompanies a new season.
“There’s kind of this other thing that’s new in there, that football doesn’t matter if you don’t handle COVID right,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan, of course, signed a lucrative extension this offseason that reportedly made him one of the five highest-paid coaches in the NFL. Being in charge of handling his team during these uncertain times, beyond designing one of the league’s most creative offenses, will force him to earn that money.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 4:00 AM.