Mike Vrabel adds his voice to stay-at-home efforts

[T-Rac]

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In case people in Tennessee weren’t willing to listen to the instructions of their local politicians, perhaps a football coach can help deliver the message.

Titans coach Mike Vrabel joined Nashville mayor John Cooper at his press briefing Monday, as they emphasized the benefit of social distancing.

“As in everything, especially with the Tennessee Titans football season last year, it’s not necessarily how you start, but it’s how you finish,” Vrabel said, via Erik Bacharach of the Tennessean.

Having just made a push to the AFC Championship Game after starting 2-4, it’s a valuable use of a time-honored football cliche. But it also applies to the current effort to flatten the curve of hospitalizations for COVID-19 by the simple act of keeping away from each other.

“It’s important now that we continue all our efforts,” Vrabel said. “We can’t allow all our great efforts as a community to stop because we’re halfway home or we’re close to halftime. We have to make sure that we have the resolve to stay positive and to follow the guidelines to finish, and have the resolve to see this thing through.

“Help one another, help your neighbor, help those people that are less fortunate. Spend more time worrying about somebody else than you do yourself, because I can promise you that there’s a lot of people that have it worse off than what you or I do.”

While the most pertinent information will always come from the scientists at times like these, Vrabel offering his pep talk can’t hurt, as he encourages his fans to maintain their “home” field advantage.