Several NFL coaches have been taken to task for being lax on sideline mask protocol. Duke's David Cutcliffe discusses the team's mask policy for coaches and players
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00:00 Well, I'm first a believer that it's important to other people that you wear
00:06 a mask, more important to other people than it is to you.
00:11 And I'll go back to April when I had parent meetings on Zoom and
00:16 player meetings, none of us knew what to expect.
00:21 We didn't know when they were gonna return,
00:23 under what circumstances they were gonna return.
00:26 But I promised our players and I promised our parents that the number one
00:32 priority that we would have would be the health and well being of those young men.
00:38 And that still is the number one priority.
00:42 Our protocol has been unmatched.
00:46 Our discipline level of the players has been unmatched.
00:49 They're great at wearing masks and staying distanced when you can.
00:55 Obviously, there's times in football you're not gonna be distanced.
00:58 But when we're in a meeting or just around, that's the way it's gonna be.
01:04 So I've talked with our coaches enough about it.
01:06 And it's certainly if our players are disciplined enough to do all of their
01:11 doing, that they're doing to stay playing football, why would we not do the same?
01:17 So I'm gonna wear one and I'm gonna keep it up.
01:20 I don't find it easy.
01:22 It's not easy to talk standing right here.
01:24 It's not easy to talk and call plays on the sidelines,
01:28 the constant thing that's in your mind.
01:31 But you know what, personal discipline is the best way we're gonna face anything in
01:36 life and handle tragic circumstances or tough circumstances.
01:41 So we're just gonna go with it.
01:43 Players that aren't playing will keep their mask up or
01:47 their helmet on, which puts them where they have the shield.
01:53 The other part of it is we have disposable mask they can put on.
01:57 Now when you're hydrating and you're drinking,
02:00 we don't expect them to have the mask up.
02:03 And if they're having to verbalize something, they're breathing hard,
02:06 catching their breath, we don't.
02:09 But we stand back as coaches and we understand that.
02:12 But we also are tested every single day, every day,
02:17 not three days a week like some people.
02:19 Every single day we get the results.
02:22 We have been negative this entire time since back in July.
02:27 So we do trust that value.
02:30 And so when a guy's having to recover that's been in the game,
02:34 I'm not gonna immediately make them put a mask up, but they all have them.
02:39 We have the Gators, but we also have disposable masks for all of them.