NASHVILLE – Titans head coach Mike Vrabel encouraged Nashvillians to stay strong amid the COVID-19 pandemic during a press conference on Monday morning.
Vrabel, appearing with Nashville Mayor John Cooper and Dr. Alex Jahangir of the Metro Coronavirus Task Force, also thanked healthcare workers and first responders during the crisis while also applauding those in the Nashville community.
Nashvillians can't let up now, Vrabel said.
"On behalf of the Tennessee Titans organization, we would like to thank Mayor Cooper for his service and his leadership, and we'd like to thank Dr. Jahangir for his medical guidance, and I want to thank our community for staying positive and helping one another. It is important now that we continue all of our efforts. We'd also like to thank the men and women, first responders and those men and women that are in our medical fields that go to work every single day, whether they are tired, or whether they don't feel well. They are the ones that are helping us, and they're going to be the ones to get us through this difficult time."
Press conferences have been airing daily on local television stations in recent weeks.
As of Monday morning, there have been 1,365 confirmed cases in Davidson County, with an increase of 37 cases in the last 24 hours. A total of 13 confirmed deaths are related to the coronavirus, and 291 people have recovered.
Like the 2019 Titans, a team that made it to the AFC Championship Game after playoff wins against the Patriots and the Ravens, Nashvillians have to finish the fight strong, Vrabel said.
"We have to stay positive as a community," Vrabel said. "We have to follow the guidelines set by our leaders in the community that will help us get through this. We have to continue to support our local businesses and help them through this unique time.
"As in everything, especially with the Tennessee Titans football season last year, it is not necessarily how you start but it's how you finish. We can't allow all of our great efforts as a community and leadership to stop because we are halfway home, or we are close to halftime. We have to make sure that we have the resolve to stay positive, to follow the guidelines, to finish and have the resolve to see this thing through. Help one another, help your neighbor, and help those people that are less fortunate. Spend more time worrying about somebody else than you do yourself, because I can promise you there's a lot of people who have it worse off that what you or I do."
