Cameron Brate calls Tom Brady-led workouts “a calculated risk”

[Captain Fear]

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Buccaneers tight end Cameron Brate, who has recovered from COVID-19, attended workouts organized by his new quarterback, Tom Brady.

Brate called the on-field work a “calculated risk,” just as electing to play this season is.

He contracted the virus as the player-organized workouts were happening. His fiancee, Brooke, started exhibiting symptoms, so Brate put himself in quarantine before his diagnosis.

“I initially tested negative, but at some point, I contracted it from her and later became infected,” Brate said on a Thursday conference call, via Jenna Laine of ESPN. “For me personally, the only thing I experienced was a loss of taste for two days. So I’m extremely grateful that I wasn’t one of the people who got some of the more severe symptoms.

“The way things worked out, I kind of was already in quarantine before I had a positive test or anything. I think the guys continued to work out and luckily I wasn’t putting anyone at risk, which was great.”

The workouts continued after Brate’s diagnosis, but players tried to minimize risk, he said.

“It was definitely something we talked about, definitely something we tried to figure out the best way of going about doing it,” Brate said. “I would probably say . . . we weren’t the only quarterbacks and receivers doing that across the league, although I think we were the only ones that had a helicopter above us filming it. That was interesting for sure.

“We just tried to avoid the risk of exposure to each other as much as possible. We weren’t huddling up; we weren’t hugging each other or anything like that. We were just having a little catch outside so it was kind of a calculated risk, I would say, that we took in that regard. We did the best we could to try to maintain social distance and really not have too much close interactions with one another.”