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Patriots CB Jason McCourty 'very nervous' about NFL season amid coronavirus pandemic

New England Patriots cornerback Jason McCourty is nervous about the upcoming NFL season.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging throughout the country, and what he’s seen from other players on social media, McCourty isn’t quite sure how they can safely hold a season.

“I’m not going to lie. For me, as a fellow player, I go on social media and it makes me very nervous to think there will be a season," McCourty said on the “Double Coverage” podcast on Sunday. "Because I’ve gone on social media and seen guys posting a video in a nightclub, and it’s just like, 'Yo, we’re attempting to play football. That’s not going to be OK.’"

It’s not just players partying or socializing that’s worrying McCourty, either.

"You see guys working out in one city on a Monday, working out in another city on a Tuesday, and another city the next week, and it's just like, dang, well if they're working out here, here and here, that means you have to be traveling and you come across however many people," McCourty said. "Or you see a guy posting pictures and there's hundreds of [people], whether it's anywhere. So for me, it is nerve-wracking."

McCourty recorded 40 total tackles last season and had one touchdown with the Patriots, his second with the team and 11th in the league. The 32-year-old has one year left on his two-year, $10 million deal.

‘It only takes one’

There were more than 4.3 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States as of Sunday afternoon, according to The New York Times, and more than 148,000 deaths attributed to it. The country has averaged more than 65,000 new cases each day over the past week, too.

[ Coronavirus: How the sports world is responding to the pandemic ]

The NFL and the NFLPA have agreed on testing protocols, and the league has revealed a safety plan for the season as training camps are scheduled to open this week, however not everyone was happy about it. Several players have already opted-out of the season due to the global pandemic, too.

Though it’s unclear how the league would handle an outbreak among a team — a problem Major League Baseball was forced to deal with on Monday — McCourty knows how easily that can spread within an organization.

“It only takes one person testing positive,” McCourty said. “You come into the building, and that thing will spread like wildfire.”

Patriots cornerback Jason McCourty
New England Patriots cornerback Jason McCourty is nervous about the upcoming season. (Steven Ryan/Getty Images)

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