Slowly, but surely, the Kansas City Chiefs are getting their players and staff vaccinated against COVID-19.
As of Monday, when players could officially return to team facilities for the first phase of the offseason program, only a handful of players and staff have been fully vaccinated. One confirmed to have received his vaccination is Chiefs HC Andy Reid.
“There’s approximately 18 that have been vaccinated,” Reid told reporters on Monday. “The staff will have an opportunity to do that starting tomorrow. Right now, there’s a handful of them that have already been vaccinated, myself included. I think the more that we can push towards that, I think that’s a positive. I think giving people an opportunity to do it is great as we move forward.”
The NFL is requiring that non-player Tier 1 and Tier 2 employees be vaccinated ahead of the upcoming season. Tier 1 includes coaches and trainers, while Tier 2 includes general managers, assistants and football operations staff.
Reid is hopeful that more players, coaches and staff will be vaccinated in the coming weeks as it becomes available to them. He wants to keep everyone healthy and involved throughout the season in order to get back to a sense of normalcy.
“I don’t want anybody to get sick and I surely don’t want anybody to pass away, so I think in certain situations a vaccine becomes important,” Reid continued. “We’ve seen it from the polio era on through that things have taken place where it’s helped us as humans here move forward, so I put that right there.”
Reid’s mother, Elizabeth, was a radiologist, so his stance on vaccination is unsurprising.
As for the players, only a few of them have been vaccinated against the virus already. One of those players is Chiefs star QB Patrick Mahomes, whose decision was based on protecting his fiancee and newborn daughter.
“Yeah, I’ve been vaccinated already,” Mahomes told reporters. “To me, it was more of a personal decision with having a baby girl and knowing I was going to be around people, I wanted to make sure I could do whatever I could to help keep her healthy but I think it’s a personal decision for everybody. I mean whatever you believe I think you can do whatever that is and we’ll figure out the best way to keep each other healthy by social distancing and doing whatever it is whenever we can in this building.”
Mahomes’ teammate Tyrann Mathieu revealed that he has yet to be vaccinated, but he plans to do so in the future.
“I have not gotten my vaccination yet,” Mathieu said. “I’m hoping that I could do it soon. Obviously, it’s a choice for everybody involved. I think everybody has different perspectives on it. I think at the end of the day it’s all about trying to put yourself in the best position to live a healthy life going forward and then all the people around you. So I’m hoping I can get to that. We’re still kind of going through the process, me and my family, but I’m hoping we can do it.”
Right now, it all seems to be a matter of access and availability. I anticipate the NFL in coordination with the Chiefs franchise, will do their best to make vaccination readily available to players, staff and their families.
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