He had surgery in early November. He probably was on crutches for a few weeks and started PT in December, so that would be 3 months of normal PT before the Covid shut down in early March.

His Instagram even has pics of him training, one in July.

Pretty sure he knows exactly what to do as far as rehab since he had 12 weeks of it before lockdowns.

He needs time to heal his hip
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Sure somebody will.

That doesn't mean Lucas Niang will. The doesn't mean that every player that opts out will. People tend to paint with a REALLY broad brush.
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Yeah, "50 people in close quarters constantly" or "strict lockdown" ...it obviously has to be one or the other. :-)
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I think we can look at the behavior of people in their early 20s nationwide and have a pretty decent idea of what they're likely to do. Especially in concert with what we've seen from several MLB players. Niang himself was out at protests.

We don't have a smoking gun, but we don't exactly have 'zero evidence' here either.

We don't know exactly how any single individual will act, but we can use the law of large numbers to give ourselves a fair idea of how the group writ large is likely to behave.

But ultimately that's why I say that I'm not sure many of them are being honest with themselves. Again - we shall see.
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I think most opt-out players are going to have difficulty in sustaining a strict lockdown to protect their families (if that is their stated reason for opting-out) for 6+ months.

Whereas being in a highly structured NFL team environment with strict mitigation protocols in place and access to daily testing would actually be safer than trying to navigate on your own (not to mention the long term potential career impact of opting out).
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You can think but you don’t KNOW.

Niang made a decision. It’s now up to him how he handles being away from the team.
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One of the best quotes from a generally brainless movie you'll ever see:

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

No, you can never know how a single person will react to something. But we have a looooooong history with people in general and we know how any large enough group is likely to operate.
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None of us KNOW that we'll live to see the sunrise tomorrow.

But we have to operate under the assumption that what happened every day previously will happen tomorrow as well.

Yes, this is ultimately up to Niang to decide - but he's already decided he's willing to go protest but isn't willing to go to work.

{shrug}

It's his life and his employer gave him the ability to make that choice. Again - I won't begrudge anyone for making a decision regarding work that their employer has allowed them to make. But I reiterate - it's interesting to see where Niang specifically elected to draw that line. What risk he thought was okay (and did not come with commensurate testing and protocols) and which one he thinks is not.
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Pretty sad that players are given shit for choosing to opt out of a season when you’ve got fucking idiots out there that refuse to wear a mask or stop partying because “my freedoms!!!!”.
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FYP dumbshit.
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Who's to say those Venn diagrams don't overlap?

Again - 24 year old football players are not a demographic group apart. They're still just 24 year old people. Who play football.

Those same people that won't stop partying are the peer groups of many of these players.

So when you immediately call the former 'fucking idiots' and sanctify the latter...well I think you're doing it wrong.
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It's actually all in the same type of vein, it's all selfishness, I want muh futballs, I don't care that these dudes are people. Same ask that mask shit, I don't wanna wear one so fuck everyone else, same type of thought process.
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One can easily argue that it is selfish BY playing. I'm a piece of shit, as I've said before. I'm definitely selfish so ain't no way I'm giving up a 1M to 30M paycheck for a 150k paycheck if I was in their shoes. Someone wants to give me millions of dollars I'll dance over hot coals.

They are taking a clearly altruistic stance to help limit the risk to their family. That decision is much more responsible than the one I would take. And I should not be annoyed by it.

However, I can see how fan who has NO CHOICE but to work a low paying job to make ends meat would be annoyed. It doesn't make it right or wrong - but I can completely understand it. NFL players are extremely privileged to be able to have a league that 1) won't punsh them for quitting 2) still pays them a stipend if they quit 3) forwards their salary to the next year 4) offers free & mandatory testing to every employee (I could go on and on about such privileges) The same cannot be said about the Price Chopper stocker making $12 an hour, living in a shitty apartment, who has no such privileges.
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Believe me. If it comes out that Niang opted out and then went about with his normal life....partying and not giving a fuck....I’ll be the first to call him a fucking idiot. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt right now.
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The odds of a 22 year old without the structure of a professional NFL team with expert virus mitigation strategies in place trying instead to adhere to a strict self-lockdown for 6+ months...
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