25-year-old Washington Football Team defensive tackle Caleb Brantley won't play if there's a 2020 NFL season held amid the coronavirus pandemic.
As Pro Football Talk's Charean Williams wrote, Brantley is the first known player to take the "high-risk" opt-out available during training camps, which open to all players on Tuesday. Brantley, as well as anybody else who takes that choice, will earn a $350,000 stipend and have his contract tolled, or delayed, until the 2021 campaign.
Earlier in the day, the Baltimore Ravens announced wide receiver and returner De’Anthony Thomas voluntarily chose to sit the season out.
The Cleveland Browns drafted Brantley in 2017, but he failed to make the club's final roster for the 2018 campaign. Brantley signed with Washington in September of that year but has only appeared in eight contests with the franchise because of injury setbacks.
He re-signed with Washington in March.
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