NY Giants’ Logan Ryan: Practicing with a mask ‘about as comfortable as you’d think’
The NY Giants made several adjustments in the aftermath of Will Hernandez testing positive for COVID-19
Everyone has had to make sacrifices and life-changes over the past nine months as the COVID-19 pandemic rips through the United States, and Thursday NY Giants defensive back Logan Ryan opened up about the latest nuisance his team encountered Thursday.
In the aftermath of NY Giants left guard Will Hernandez testing positive for COVID-19, forcing Hernandez, seven teammates and two coaches into isolation Thursday, the remaining Giants players were required to wear masks and/or face shields during practice.
“It’s as comfortable as you’d think,” Ryan joked. “Not too comfortable.”
As one of the leaders of the Giants’ defense, Ryan seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation facing the nation, the league, and now his team.
“This is 2020,” Ryan said. “A lot of things we need to adjust for. I’m not complaining. I have the best job in the world, and got used to it pretty quickly.”
Ryan joked that he’s had plenty of experience on ZOOM this year, and his biggest challenge over the next few days as the Giants move meetings virtually is to make sure his kids aren’t “doing backflips in the background.”
Requiring players to wear masks on the field was just one of the adjustments Giants head coach Joe Judge implemented Thursday.
“We have some precautions we have to take as a team,” Judge said. “We’re optimistic to get all these guys back. We’re operating that we’re going to have them back right now. In terms of what we’re going to do and adjust as a team, I’m going to change the post-practice meetings to meet virtually.”
For the fist seven weeks, the Giants have been fortunate that COVID-19 was unable to penetrate the walls of the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
However, Thursday’s news did not change Judge’s approach, or the resolve he’s demanding from his players.
“Look, it’s all about being safe. It’s all about making sure we put ourselves in the right situations. It’s about the social distancing in the building,” Judge said. “the protocols with the masks and PPEs. We just need to go ahead and stay consistent with that throughout the season and make sure we put ourselves in the best position possible.
“I think it starts with our facilities. Ronnie (Barnes) and the facilities director (Victor McLoughlin) have done a great job of setting up where we have them meet. We’ve transformed our indoor facility into really our meeting space for this year. That’s really allowed us to remain spaced out in more of an open-air situation to help with the players and ventilation in terms of having the protocols set up to make sure we’re spaced out in meetings and to be able to still have in-person meetings. That’s really been something that we’ve benefited from and it’s helped us along the way.”
NY Giants: Who stays, who goes at NFL trade deadline?. dark. Next
Matt Lombardo is the site expert for GMenHQ, and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday for FanSided. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL.