Eagles wide receiver Marquise Goodwin announced yesterday that he has decided not to play this season because of concerns about COVID-19. Today, Goodwin said fans’ reactions have not all been supportive.
Goodwin noted that America has lost 150,000 people to COVID-19, and he said his response to the pandemic is to take it seriously -- even if many others aren’t.
“I’ve gotten so many messages . . . from ‘concerned’ fans telling me how stupid I am and that this COVID-19 isn’t that serious,” Goodwin wrote on Twitter. “I bet my bank account that there are 150k dead people that would argue different.”
After deciding to opt out of the 2020 season, Goodwin posted an emotional message on YouTube explaining his reasoning for opting out of the season. Goodwin noted that he and his wife have lost three pregnancies and he has taken football so seriously that he once left his wife at the hospital after she delivered their child prematurely so he could play in a game.
Goodwin and his wife now have a young child, and he worried that he could catch COVID-19 on the field and spread it to his family. No one can accuse Goodwin of not making sacrifices for his team, but he felt that playing this season is simply too great a risk. There’s nothing stupid about that.