NFL Will Drop the Hammer on Unvaccinated Players if they Screw Up Scheduling

Getting the COVID-19 vaccination is a personal choice, of course, but that choice affects everybody around us, whether we’re willing to admit it or not.

It’s especially true in team sports, and to that point, the NFL today came out and pre-emptively placed the hammer above players who refuse the vaccine. They have not yet dropped this figurative hammer, but they will if their anti-vax status fucks with the NFL season.

Tom Pelissero is sharing the details on Twitter right now:

The NFL just informed clubs that if a game cannot be rescheduled during the 18-week season in 2021 due to a COVID outbreak among unvaccinated players, the team with the outbreak will FORFEIT and be credited with a loss for playoff seeding, per sources.

Massive implications.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 22, 2021

That’s pretty stern. If anti-vax Cole Beasley and other anti-vax Bills teammates come down with COVID, for instance, and the game has to be scrapped, Buffalo gets a loss. Those are, indeed, “massive implications.”

Here’s more:

And the biggest penalty of all for players:

“If a game is cancelled and cannot be rescheduled within the current 18-week scheduled due to a Covid outbreak, neither team’s players will receive their weekly paragraph 5 salary.”

You read that right: NOBODY GETS PAID.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 22, 2021

The NFL is basically saying that players can choose to get the vaccine or not, but if they don’t, and that screws with the schedule, then they are going to face the consequences. It’s a pretty strong effort to incentivize vaccination, and it’s their prerogative to do this as a private sector organization that does not guarantee employment or participation.

Full memo here:

Here’s the full memo the NFL sent to teams today on COVID-19 protocols, and punishments for outbreaks among unvaccinated personnel. pic.twitter.com/0vFw197022

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) July 22, 2021