Super Bowl running back Raheem Mostert took COVID-19 seriously from start. Here’s why
While some athletes such as Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert were joking about COVID-19 in early March, others in the sports world were taking the deadly virus seriously.
San Francisco 49ers running back Raheem Mostert had a feeling that the coronavirus might dramatically alter the course of normalcy in our day-to-day lives, so he decided to take action by canceling an autograph signing that was scheduled for March 8.
Some may have viewed this as an overreaction on Mostert’s part, but thanks to some huge life changes of his own, Mostert wasn’t about to risk getting sick.
Coming off his Super Bowl appearance against the Kansas City Chiefs in early February, Mostert also used the tweet to announce that he was going to be a father for the second time.
The autograph signing, which also featured former 49ers Joe Montana and Patrick Willis, as well as NBA superstar Klay Thompson from the Golden State Warriors, was held in the San Francisco Bay Area. That meant that Mostert would have had to fly from his home in Cleveland to attend the signing, which was out of the question.
“It wasn’t a hard call for me,” Mostert said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. “First and foremost, I thought about my family. I didn’t want to put them in that situation where I would be the only one that traveled to the Bay Area, expose myself to multiple people and then come back with the virus.”
Mostert appeared to be ahead of the curve when it came to taking the virus seriously in early March — even before leagues started shutting down one-by-one, starting with the NBA after Gobert and Jazz teammate Donovan Mitchell tested positive for the coronavirus on March 11.
Gobert took major criticism after he mocked the virus warnings by touching every microphone and recording device in front of him before leaving a media session on March 9.
With Mostert, it’s family first and career second.
“One of the biggest things for me, if you get to know me, is my family,” he said on “The Jim Rome Show.” “I was talking with my wife, too, is that it was very important for us to stay ahead of this thing no matter what and protect ourselves.”
It appears that the breakout NFL star was right in his assessment since more and more athletes are revealing that they’ve contracted COVID-19.