Patrick Chung Relays Bill Belichick’s Reaction to Him Opting Out of The 2020 season

Head coach Bill Belichick has led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl wins and he has been working on the dynasty for two decades. Is his dynasty falling apart? Tom Brady is gone, and several other players left the team to sign with other organizations. That’s not all. A group of players decided to opt-out of the upcoming season. Patrick Chung is one of them, and he won’t join his team in the 2020 season.

Six Patritos players made things a lot harder for the Patriots head coach. Chung is a full-time starter and he decided to stay away from the field in 2020. The veteran talked to his head coach about this, and Belichick had an expected reaction.

“He understood,” Chung told “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday. “Coach understands it’s a serious pandemic going on. He totally got it. You guys think Bill is like this drill sergeant, but he’s actually a very caring person. He totally understood and that was it. It was a short phone call.”

Patrick Chung and other key players won’t join the team in 2020

Linebacker Dont’a Hightower, right tackle Marcus Cannon, running back Brandon Bolden, fullback Danny Vitale and reserve offensive lineman Najee Toran will opt out of the upcoming season. Cannon is a cancer survivor after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2011.

When it comes to Chung, he had several family matters to make this decision. He wants to play football, but he also wants to keep his family safe and healthy.

“Of course it’s a tough decision,” the veteran said. “You want to play football. I’m at the latter half of my career so I wanted to play football, but when it comes down to it, I feel money is not that important. I have a girlfriend that’s pregnant, baby girl coming soon, my son has a little asthma, my dad is 75 years old, so I just felt like this was the best decision for my family to keep everyone safe.” 

Chung was about to enter his 12th NFL season. This was also his 11th season with the Pats under coach Belichick. The Patriots will probably use safety Kyle Dugger as a replacement for Chung.