Former NFL player and neurosurgery resident at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Myron Rolle, MD, criticized the NFL for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic this season, NBC Sports Boston reports.
Many players and staff contracted the virus this season and several games were rescheduled as a result.
"I give the NFL a D-," Dr. Rolle said in a Jan. 3 interview with NBC. The resident surgeon said he would give an F, but "can't be too rough on someone with the same specialty," speaking about NFL CMO, Allen Sills, MD, a neurosurgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Dr. Sills was likely under significant pressure from NFL owners and leadership to have games played, but said the organization "failed miserably from the start," Dr. Rolle told NBC.
Unlike the NBA and NHL, which implemented postseason bubbles to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the NFL told franchises in December they will not have local playoff bubbles this month.