Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins revisited his comments from a Thursday morning appearance on CNN with a video on social media later in the day.
Jenkins said that the “trust system” the league is using to facilitate the return of players for the 2020 season “puts us all at risk” and that “we have to understand that football is a nonessential business” amid a global pandemic. Jenkins opened up his second round of comments by clarifying what he’d like to do this season.
“I want to play football. I think all my peers want to play football. It’s how we make a living,” Jenkins said.
He went on to note the rising numbers of cases in many areas in the country, outbreaks among college teams working out together and the issues other pro leagues are dealing with as they try to return to action before finishing with optimism about the work the league and NFLPA are doing to protect everyone’s health.
“There’s so much we don’t know at this point, but I know the bar for the NFL is gonna be high when it comes to creating a safe work environment and making it as safe as possible for guys to come back,” Jenkins said. “Keep in mind, it’s not just about the athletes, coaches or staff, but our families too.”
The league’s conference call with media on Thursday touched on topics like testing and mitigation practices while making it clear that they intend to start training camp as scheduled next month.