Eagles

Malik Jackson Unhappy With NFL’s Lack of Pandemic Preparedness

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 9th, 2020 · 11:27 AM EDT

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“Players expressing themselves on Instagram,” is now the unofficial nickname for this week. We’ve got D Jax, Marquise Goodwin, and now here’s Eagles defensive tackle Malik Jackson sharing his displeasure with the NFL’s return to play plans.

Writes Jackson:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

@nfl @nflpa It is unacceptable and utterly disrespectful for the owners to have set a camp start date of July 28, 2020 with no safety/ financial guarantee agreed upon for us as players, the backbone of this industry. Today is July 8 and we have no answers to simple questions we’ve been asking since this pandemic started. We (players) are sons,fathers & brothers wanting to protect our families during this unprecedented time. As Pro-Athletes we are willing and able juggle. Juggle the risk that our careers bring, the stress of the game on our minds and bodies and most important making sure we don’t neglect our families. Now, you want us to weigh putting food on the table the best way we know how which we could potentially catching the killer virus and bring it home or starve. I can not pass Rush from 6 feet away, I cannot defeat a double team from 6 feet away nor can I tackle somebody from 6 feet away (to not do those things in practice, just in games is asinine). This sport is not in any way able to be played 6 feet away, let alone stop the transfer of sweat and blood. Respectfully, every owner is over 40 and understandable will probably not be out there with us on the field nor in the building. I ask in this moment you see us as people not financial burdens or roster spots. Health is wealth for both parties.

A post shared by Malik Jackson (@themalikjackson) on Jul 8, 2020 at 5:31pm PDT

Its… hard to argue with any of that. We’ve heard similar sentiment from athletes in every other sport, be it basketball (Joel Embiid), baseball (Mike Trout), or hockey (Drew Doughty). The sports leagues aren’t gonna get it perfect, but maybe they can try to do more to assuage player concerns.