Last year, Cam Newton put himself in a position away from the team facility to catch COVID. This year, an unvaccinated Cam Newton broke protocol and got himself shut out of the facility for five days.
The Patriots, who always know the rules well enough to twist them in their own favor, seem to be covering for Cam. One of the selling points for players getting vaccinated is that unvaccinated players must be tested at the team facility every single day. Whether during the bye week or the upcoming mini-bye following the third preseason game, it’s regarded as a given that the unvaccinated player must remain and get tested, every single day.
There’s some limited flexibility within that approach, technically up to nearly 48 hours from the start of one day and the end of the next day. So, in theory, a player can get tested one morning, leave town, spend the night, come back, and get tested the next evening.
Regardless of Newton’s specific reason for leaving town, that’s the simple formula for taking an overnight trip out of town and still complying with the testing protocol. Get tested, leave town, spend the night, come back, get tested.
The specifics as to Newton aren’t known. It’s highly unlikely that the Patriots didn’t know the rules, or that the Patriots didn’t explain the rules to Newton. If Newton thought getting his required daily COVID test at a place other than the team facility would comply with the rules, that’s surely not something the team believed or authorized.
It’s a cautionary tale for other unvaccinated players who have been told the rules but who haven’t prioritized understanding them, or complying. And it’s an unforced error by Newton that opens the door for Mac Jones to reverse the presumption that Newton will be the starting quarterback in Week One.
With Jones, assuming he’s vaccinated, the constant risk of a positive test (10-day minimum absence), close contact with an infected person (five-day minimum absence), or a protocol breach (five-day minimum absence) simply isn’t there. With Newton and other unvaccinated players, the possibility of a sudden absence never subsides.
For vaccinated quarterbacks, who get tested once every 14 days and who aren’t subject to a five-day absence for close contacts bring the benefit of certainty. There won’t be a positive test after the hay is in the barn for a given game. There won’t be a five-day absence for a close contact.
In close cases, how will that not make a difference? One guy can be counted on to be available every day. The other one can’t be. In New England, Cam has shown that he’s in the latter category, all because he has declined to get vaccinated.
The easy answer for Newton is to get vaccinated. The tougher answer is to ensure full and complete compliance with each and every rule and regulation. In that regard, Newton already has failed. Whether that’s enough to get the Patriots to go with Jones over Newton at the quarterback position remains to be seen.
