The NFL’s teams have gotten progressively better and better about getting their players vaccinated.
There are 23 teams in the league with, at least, a 90 percent vaccination rate right now, per the Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala, and 92.7 percent of players in the league have received at least one shot.
There are just four more teams with a vaccination rate of 89 percent or lower. Now, it’s just a matter of getting those teams on board.
But if the Buffalo Bills are going to be any indication of how that process is going to go, it’s going to be a real struggle. That’s pretty clear at this point.
The Bills’ vaccination rate is hovering around 80 percent, per The Athletic. And they just sent Cole Beasley, Gabriel Davis, Vernon Butler and Star Lotulelei home and labeled them as high risk in the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols after they came in contact with a vaccinated staff member who contracted COVID. The players were all unvaccinated.
On top of that, wideout Isaiah McKenzie was just fined $14,650 for not wearing a mask after repeatedly refusing to wear a mask, despite protocols requiring him to do so.
What’s worse? He didn’t seem to take it seriously at all. He posted the fine letter to Twitter saying “They got me! NFL you win!”
They got me! @NFL you win! pic.twitter.com/Ewt498wmsy
— Isaiah McKenzie (@_IsaiahMcKenzie) August 26, 2021
And then Cole Beasley followed up with this tweet in his continued efforts to delegitimize the NFL’s COVID-19 policies.
Don’t worry they got me too. But I was wearing a mask when I was in close contact with fully vaxxed trainer who tested positive and still got sent home. So what’s the point of the mask anyways? Meanwhile I’m here still testing negative and can’t come back. Make it make sense. https://t.co/VGzoy0ljb4
— Cole Beasley (@Bease11) August 26, 2021
This is the problem the NFL is facing in a nutshell. Yes, it’s made incredible progress in getting folks vaccinated so far. But the ones who refuse? It seems to be leaning in.
Beasley is dismissing the NFL’s policy every chance he gets. McKenzie is totally dismissing a $14k fine as if it’s Monopoly money. They just don’t really seem to be concerned about the policy or, more importantly, the well-being of others at all.
Maybe there’s room for heftier fines and suspensions to get them to care, but they’re already hefty as is.
And it’s hard to think about what more the NFL can do to coerce them to convince them to just take the shot. The league’s policies are already stringent and could even lead to the forfeiture of games if things go haywire.
It looks like it’s just a matter of hoping players choose to think about doing a relatively simple thing for others instead of themselves, at this point.
And, well, good luck with that.
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