JC Tretter is the NFL Players Association President. Smart guy. Went to Cornell and now plays for the Cleveland Browns.

He’s somewhat annoyed with the memo the NFL sent out last week with the 2021 COVID guidelines. That was the information about forfeits and loss of pay if unvaccinated players cause a schedule screw up that results in a game having to be cancelled.

Tretter wrote an article at the union website called Clearing Up The Facts On Our COVID Protocols and says this in paragraph two:

Let’s start with a quick history lesson. Last year, the COVID Amendments, which were overwhelmingly passed by our Board, included protections for players across the board, and they are the same framework we are going to play under this year. To simplify this for everyone, the protocols that were implemented last year are nearly identical. The fines are the same. The mask wearing, physical distancing, testing and contact tracing are the same. Yes, there are changes to how vaccinated players can move about the building and do their jobs, but that is based on data and science.

And later on:

“The NFL’s memo last week was a transparent attempt to pressure players to get vaccinated; and to do that, they sacrificed clarity and created confusion for players, coaches, media and fans…”

…

“The NFL wants every game to be played. The players want every game to be played. The fans and media want every game to be played. It will take all of us to accomplish our goal of playing a full season and crowning a Super Bowl champion. We have the same goal. Every stunt like that memo only makes our success less likely. We need each other to accomplish it. The NFL has to be better, and we need to stick together as players and as a union to make this work again.”

Okay, but look, the bottom line is that more vaccinations = less of a chance of games being postponed and/or threatened. Tretter notes that the players and league “got through a full season” in 2020 but fails to note all of the bullshit rescheduling that had to be done, and the quality of play that was sacrificed. The Titans dicked the Steelers and forced an early bye week, then Pittsburgh eventually played Baltimore on a Wednesday. Denver rolled out a wide receiver named Kendall Hinton as their signal caller because four quarterbacks were ineligible due to COVID rules. It got really hairy in certain spots.

But listen; we’ve been over this before. If players don’t want to get the vaccine, they don’t have to. There is nothing in the rules forcing them to do so. That’s different for coaches and other types of personnel who must adhere to a different set of guidelines, and if they don’t comply, they can find themselves out of a job, which has already happened in a couple of cases.