NFL Bringing Down the Hammer on NFL Teams With Unvaccinated Players

Published on July 23rd, 2021 1:46 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Football leagues are taking a tougher stance in regards to unvaccinated players. Earlier this week, Arizona Cardinals star wide receiver Deandre Hopkins threatened to retire, in a now-deleted Tweet, as a result of a new memo that the NFL handed down to its 32 teams.

The NFL has brought the hammer down - if a team has a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players over the course of the 2021 season, that team faces the possibility of forfeit if the game can't be comfortably rescheduled over the course of the 18-week regular season.

In addition, the team will take a loss for playoff seeding and face financial penalties from the NFL.

On top of that, players from BOTH teams will lose their checks for the forfeited game.

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Over the course of the 2020 regular season, the NFL twisted themselves into a pretzel to make sure that no games were missed.

This year, the league is taking a much tougher stance on games that have to be rescheduled due to COVID-19 outbreaks among unvaccinated players.

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Some players have already gotten the vaccine.

Some are reluctantly getting it.

Others, like Deandre Hopkins, Leonard Fournette and Cole Beasley, have said that they won't be getting the vaccine.

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All 32 teams have a vaccination rate of at least 50%, while 14 have vaccination rates of at least 85%.

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The players who have gone public about not getting vaccinated are facing significant public pressure. It will be interesting to see if they capitulate before the season begins, and whether or not there are any outbreaks this season.

The NFL has said that if there is an outbreak among vaccinated players, this will do all they can to minimize the competitive and financial burden for the teams involved.

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