No need to wait for lab results. More than 20 NFL players already have decided a tenuous season in the age of coronavirus isn’t for them.
Those players, some of them standouts, have opted out of playing in 2020, a feature of the recently amended collective bargaining agreement that allows them to push the pause button on their careers.
The New England Patriots were jolted the hardest, with six players tapping out, among them linebacker Dont’a Hightower and safety Patrick Chung, fixtures on last year’s No. 1-ranked defense, and starting right tackle Marcus Cannon.