Washington coach Ron Rivera is one of the more outspoken coaches in the NFL — in a good way. It’s one of the biggest reasons he’s so popular with his players, other teams and fans.
One subject Rivera has been passionate about recently is the COVID-19 vaccine. Rivera, who was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma last summer, went through treatments throughout the season and never missed a game.
COVID-19 is scary for Rivera because of his cancer battle, he now has a compromised immune system. So, throughout the year, Rivera has worked hard to educate his players on the benefit of the vaccine. He even brought a vaccine expert in over the summer to talk to his players.
Rivera spoke of his frustration about Washington’s low vaccination rate in the early stages of training camp. Since that time, Washington’s vaccination has steadily increased.
In a recent chat with Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, Rivera sounded off about the misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine.
There’s enough positive science out there, if they’re going to tell me that over 600,000 people have died and 99.9% are people that were not vaccinated, well, what about the .1%? Well, that .1% are people that had underlying conditions—old age, something else. It’s not young, healthy people. So I don’t know why. And then they talk about all this distrust, well, if half the world wants it and can’t get it, what’s the problem with us? It frustrates me.
Rivera spoke of an interaction he had with a player recently who received the COVID vaccine. Rivera asked the player if he watched the news, and the player responded no, that he got everything from his phone.
Rivera sees that as a problem.
“Gen Z is relying on this,” said Rivera, now holding up his phone. “And you got some, quite frankly, f—— a——-, that are putting a bunch of misinformation out there, leading people to die. That’s frustrating to me, that these people are allowed to have a platform. And then, one specific news agency, every time they have someone on, I’m not a doctor, but the vaccines don’t work. Or, I’m not an epidemiologist, but vaccines are going to give you a third nipple and make you sterile. Come on. That, to me? That should not be allowed.”
It’s great to see Rivera stand up for what he believes in. While Rivera has football reasons for wanting players to be vaccinated, there’s much more to it than that. Rivera is such a unique coach because he cares deeply about his players off the field.