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The Cincinnati Bengals say they have hit the 90 percent threshold in terms of player vaccinations ahead of training camp, while the entire surrounding staff is fully vaccinated.
Or written another way, the Bengals are back to mostly normal operating procedure after meeting guidelines set by the NFL.
Monday, Bengals coach Zac Taylor commented on his team’s progress in this area, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:
“Our players have done a great job. We are 90 percent in the process of being fully vaccinated. Really, two weeks from now there’s another 10 that will be considered fully vaccinated. We are in a good spot. We have had great conversations with all these guys and proud of the way they have attacked it and communicated it. They have allowed us to be put in a really good position to be as normal as possible going forward.”
Bengals president Mike Brown took a collabrotative tone as well when discussing how he handled things with his players and staff:
“I’d like to get it up to a full 100 percent. But people have to agree to do this. We’re not compelling them to do it. We’re asking them to do it. We’re trying to convince them to do it and we’re making good progress at that … I like to think we could work through this cooperatively … I’m aware of it and probably that’s what they wanted. They wanted us to take notice and that might incentive us to do the things we need to do to give us the best chance to have a complete season.”
We knew the Bengals were doing really well on this front because Taylor went as far as calling off a minicamp early last month. Locker room leader Jessie Bates hinted it had something to do with the team’s high vaccination rate.
Besides getting back to normal operating procedure for training camp and the preseason, the high rate will play a role in the Bengals combating the league’s memo that detailed forfeits and lack of paychecks for teams that cause cancelled games.
In at least this area, the Bengals nearly stand alone as an example to the rest of the league.
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