Indianapolis Colts GM Chris Ballard: ‘It’s the Ultimate Test of Discipline Right Now’
INDIANAPOLIS — The idea of managing 80 football players, front-office and coaching staffs, training and equipment personnel as well as NFL facility personnel amid the Coronavirus pandemic sounds daunting.
Fourth-year Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard acknowledged on a recent Zoom video conference call that how to go about ensuring safety for everyone is a good question.
“There’s going to be sacrifices that are going to have to be made by all of us,” Ballard said. “Everybody that’s in the building right now that’s with a tier, players, coaches, staff – we’re all going to have to make sacrifices. It’s the ultimate test of discipline right now. Can you sustain it for a long time?”
Ballard elaborated with an example.
“I have already cut off for the season any visitors coming to town,” he said. “I always have visitors coming in every weekend, but that’s just not the world we’re living in right now. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to celebrate every Sunday together with family and friends that I’m used to having come up for games. There’s going to be sacrifices that each one of us are going to have to make.
“I’ll talk to the team, and I’ve already talked to them about it, but there’s going to have to be that peer pressure from within the locker room to know that if you do something outside of this building that puts the team at risk, that’s a selfish move. Now, we have protocols in place to hopefully catch it from testing, from the daily questions, temperature checks, and all the other stuff we’re doing to catch it before it gets into the building. It’s the ultimate test of discipline that this league is going to go through.”
The Colts placed two players, wide receiver Malik Henry and cornerback Jackson Porter, on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Three Colts — linebacker Skai Moore, cornerback Marvell Tell III, and safety Rolan Milligan — opted out. The opt-out deadline was 4 p.m. Thursday.
Colts head coach Frank Reich said on a Wednesday video call that he has worked with Ballard to formulate a plan if any of his coaches test positive. That includes Reich, who wouldn’t divulge whether offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni or defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus would take charges, but both assistants were made aware of the plan.
But it’s a fluid situation that requires flexibility as well as constant communication. That applies to more than just everyone staying on the same page in the same building.
“One of the really cool things that’s going on right now in the NFL is we’re talking to each other, trying to help each other figure this out,” Ballard said. “I know Frank has had a lot of communication with other head coaches in the league. I’ve had communication with a lot of GMs in the league and coaches. Just, ‘What are you doing? What can we do better?’ That’s really cool. I think we all want to make this a go and make this work because everybody is saying we can’t do it. There is nothing better than proving people wrong that we can do it, and we can do it safely.
“I think you’re seeing a league come together and try and do the right thing and help each other. You don’t want to see the competitive advantages come into play here. When we win, we want to win. You don’t want an asterisk next to the win. Are there going to be times when things happen? Absolutely. This is a contagious disease so there’s going to be circumstances on certain Sundays where you’re going to be missing some guys, but we just move forward and we do everything we can to mitigate the risks and keep everybody safe.”
(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)
