The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN former National Football League player Dr Myron Rolle continue to make an impact as a neurosurgery resident on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday, the retired safety who played college football at Florida State and was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft, was featured on First Take, the popular sports talk show on ESPN.

He was interviewed by host American sports anchor Molly Qerim-Rose and commentators Stephen A Smith and Max Kellerman as they weighed in on the NFL postponing the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans game after multiple players and personnel tested positive for the coronavirus and discusses how the NFL has handled COVID-19 protocols.

Rolle, a neurosurgery resident at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, was first asked by Qerim-Rose on how he felt about the game being postponed.

“I think it’s a very good idea, honestly,” said Rolle, who was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and studied at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University for the 2009-2010 academic year in order to earn an MSc in Medical Anthropology.

“I was very skepitable about the NFL getting the season going amidst the pandemic. We have seen 200,000 people die from Covid-19 and millions more affected.”

Rolle, chosen in 2010 as the second-smartest athlete in sports by the Sporting News, behind baseball player Craig Brewslow, said at the hospital where he function, he’s operated on persons who are Covid-19 positive and he’s taken care of patients with neurosurgical disease, burdened with Covid-19, which indicates to him that the coronavirus is real.

He mentioned that it’s reached the White House with President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, now affected, so it’s happening and permeating all parts of culture, including sports and now football.

Without a bubble as the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) have done in Florida, Rolle said the NFL has exposed its players, the personnel, their teams and their families to this very challenging virus and so it’s going to be difficult for them to think that the season can continue without any more disruptions.

Smith brought up a key point when he asked Rolle about how he felt about the way the NFL handled their season over the last few months and whether or not he think they could salvage the remainder of it.

“I think the NFL has fallen short, honestly,” Rolle said. “I think their priority was putting the product on the field. They have a consumer and they want to meet a demand and everyone is yarning for football. They want to get this product going as much as possible.

“They’ve put all these testing and protocols in place to help force that issue. But in the long run when you have coaches and other sideline personnel, not being very compliant with their mast wearing, I think its microscopic of what you would see if you walked into a NFL locker room.”

Having talked to a number of players about how their testing was done earlier on, during training camp, is much different from what is going on, so I’m not sure if the results are accurate or truth, or the real negatives are true negatives.

“I think there’s a little bit of complacency happening. I feel that there is more that could be done and I yarn that these players are trying to protect themselves and their families. That is premium at this point.”

Given the availability and the results of the tests right away, which would allow for more contract tracing, Kellerman suggested that the NFL is a much safer place to be in where they are constantly tested, is perservsive.

“That’s part of the story,” Rolle lamented. “If they can get that done and get it done efficiently and effectively, you have a case where the NFL can resume safely, not only for the players and the staff, but their family members.

“But again, you have different variables where you have people traveling and so you don’t know who you are in contact with when you are in a hotel or on a bus to the stadium. So that just add to these new degrees of safety that we are not sure about.”

Rolle, the is the youngest son of Whitney and Beverly Rolle and is now married to pediatric dentist Latoya Legrand-Rolle, suggested that the NFL use all of the medical resources available to make a better determination on how they should proceed with the remainder of their season.

The panel, led by Qerim-Rose, thanked Rolle for his impute and the contribution he’s making as a medical professional in his brief pro football career.

Three weeks after its outbreak when Mass. General’s neurosurgical floor was transformed into a Covid-19 ward, Rolle’s duties shifted from his normal neurosurgical cases to fighting the virus.

Last year, Rolle also came home to assist in the restoration of Grand Bahama and Abaco after the passing of Hurricane Dorian, which wrecked havoc on the majority of those two islands, killed countless amount of people and left hundreds more dispersed.