Getty Eagles CB Darius Slay has been a revelation in his first season in Philadelphia.
Darius Slay is full of jokes and laughed about the hardest part of the NFL’s COVID-19 rules was not having the rookies buy him dinner on the road. They can’t venture outside their bubble, thus depriving him of his favorite meal: a nice steak from Del Frisco’s or somewhere fancy like that.
Everyone laughed. Then, Slay made a stunning admission about the season. It shouldn’t have happened.
“We shouldn’t have played,” Slay said.
Slay later clarified that he was talking about the early stages of the pandemic before the league established strict protocols and social distancing guidelines. The Eagles’ shutdown cornerback applauded the way the organization and the league had taken the bull by the horns. He has never felt unsafe or at risk since arriving at the Eagles’ practice facility.
“I think y’all just trying to word it wrong,” Slay told reporters. “I was basically just saying when it first came out … so I’m like ‘ah, nah, we maybe should not have no season’ when it first came out. Clearly like the Eagles have been doing a great job of protecting us.”
So, you are comfortable playing this year, right?
“I’m OK playing,” Slay said. “Shoot, the Eagles probably have it the most safest it’s been. I feel most safest here besides at my house.”
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Slay Was Worried, Then NFL Established Protocols
Slay admitted that he was worried at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic because he didn’t know how the NFL was going to successfully control the novel coronavirus. The fear of the unknown caused him to believe there shouldn’t be a season. He has a family: four children and a wife to protect.
“Well, when I heard what the rules were and how they were going to protect us, you know, with the COVID, with the mask, all the stuff they came up with … they came up with a good game plan to have us in the building,” Slay told reporters. “Before then, I was thinking to myself like ‘How they going to do this? How they
going to find a way for us to not have this. How they going to know who have it?'”
Slay continued: “And that’s when they kind of invented the trackers and we got all kinds of stuff so I’m like OK now I feel comfortable doing it because of the fact that I’m getting tested every day and this and that and the third. Because I have kids, so I had to make sure that my kids and my wife and everybody was OK.”
Slay Fine After Injury vs. San Francisco
Slay also confirmed that he was feeling fine after injuring his knee last week against San Francisco. He took a helmet to the knee from gargantuan 49ers right tackle Mike McGlinchey (6-foot-8, 291 pounds) and left the game for a few plays.
The Eagles cornerback said he played through the pain on pure adrenaline, but it definitely hurt on the plane ride home back to Philadelphia. No worry, Slay is healed up and ready to go.
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