Thursday Raiders new linebacker Denzel Perryman entered the media room for his first press conference since joining the team. And an elephant walked in with him.
Last July Perryman said he wouldn’t get vaccinated. With that comes a lot of restrictions that can be hard on the player as well as the team dynamic.
The big question was two fold; had his stance changed and would his stance on being vaccinated have been part of the discussion when the Raiders made the trade to acquire him from the Panthers.
It was fairly obvious by the very significant looking mask Perryman was wearing for his press conference that he was still unvaccinated. But Perryman’s tune has changed from a couple months ago.
“For the record I am thinking about (getting) the vaccination now,” said Perryman. “I ain’t gonna lie, there’s too many restrictions going on. Can’t even eat with my fellow brothers. I don’t like being an outcast. . . Us unvaccinated guys can’t do much of anything. Just sit in the room and order food and come to work.”
The Raiders have prided themselves on having a high vaccination rate among the players and Gruden has said the staff is fully vaccinated. Even the stadium is requiring fans to be fully vaccinated in order to attend, in which case they may be maskless.
Perryman should get vaccinated just for his own health and those around him. But if being able to move around freely and spend time with his new teammates is enough to convince him to make that decision, that works too.