Unvaccinated Colts QB Carson Wentz Says "Trust Me" After Missing 5 Days

When talking to reporters after missing five days of practice thanks to being deemed a close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, — unvaccinated Indianapolis Colts quarterback Carson Wentz used a curious phrase over and over again: “Trust me.”

Wentz, who already missed time during the preseason due to an injury and has made it through an entire NFL season just twice during his career, using that phrase is funny because, given the way the NFL is policing unvaccinated players in order to enforce its health and safety policy, there’s really no way to trust that the 28-year-old quarterback, or any other player who hasn’t been vaccinated, will be available to suit up on any given Sunday.

“Trust me, it is a personal decision,” Wentz said, per ProFootballTalk. “I’m not going to go in-depth on why, but I will say it’s a personal decision for me and my family. And I respect everybody else’s decision and I just ask that everybody does the same for me. I know that’s not the world we live in. Not everyone is going to equally view things the same, but yeah no one really knows what’s going in someone else’s household and how things are being handled so, it’s a personal decision … Trust me. Trust me, I’ve weighed a lot of things and I’ve factored in everything. And I know what’s at stake. I know all those things. And like I said, it’s just where I’m at, where I’m at with my family, and that’s why just understanding the protocol, to truly try everything we can to avoid what happened this week. It is what it is. You know, whether we agree or not with the protocol and the rules, they’re in place, so we’ve gotta honor them as best as we can so we can avoid what happened.”

The protocol and rules, which are much less strict for vaccinated players and likely will not lead to any of them missing time unless they test positive for COVID-19, have already led to quarterbacks like Wentz, Kirk Cousins and Cam Newton missing time during camp. And, they are almost certainly going to lead to a quarterback missing a game or two. Here’s the policy, per ESPN.

“Unvaccinated players are tested daily, and those who test positive must miss 10 days, and there is then a three-day return-to-play protocol. Unvaccinated players designated as high-risk close contacts must test immediately. If they test negative they still must miss five days and can return on Day 6. If they test positive, they must go through the 10-day quarantine and three-day return-to-play protocol.”

Wentz, and any other player who isn’t vaccinated, is playing with fire. He already got burned once — and you can trust it’ll almost certainly happen again.