Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive tackle Donovan Smith isn't comfortable returning to play this fall. Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Buccaneers' Donovan Smith: Playing football 'does not seem like a risk worth taking'

By Blake Harper | Last updated 7/10/20

Buccaneers' Donovan Smith expressed his concern with the NFL season being played in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, stating that the upcoming birth of his first child has him questioning if he should play football at all.

"With the start of the 2020 NFL season fast approaching, many thoughts and questions roam my mind as I’m sure it does for many of my fellow 'coworkers' across the league," Smith wrote on Instagram. "The unfortunate events of the COVID-19 pandemic have put a halt to a lot of things. Football is not one. To continue discussing the many UNKNOWNS do not give me the comfort. Risking my health as well as my family’s health does not seem like a risk worth taking."

Smith did not outright say he would not be playing but rather seems to be calling out the league as a whole for not taking the players' health into greater concern while planning out the season. He pointed to the massive, unavoidable health risks that come with an organization as large as the NFL trying to function with business as usual.

"With my first child due in 3 weeks, I can’t help but think about how will I be able to go to work and take proper precautions around 80+ people everyday to then go home to be with my newborn daughter. How can a sport that requires physical contact on every snap and transferral of all types of bodily fluid EVERY SINGLE PLAY practice safe social distancing? How can I make sure that I don’t bring COVID-19 back to my household? Yes, we can get tested everyday, but if it takes 24 hours to get my results, how can I know each day that I am not spreading this virus or contracting it?"

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