The NFL is threatening to force teams to forfeit games if they have COVID-19 outbreaks among unvaccinated players and staff. But it’s probably little more than an empty threat designed to attract glowing media coverage.
The proposed forfeitures are the biggest headline from the NFL’s new memo. While many media figures praise this as progress, the league also declared any canceled game would result in neither team’s players being paid their salary for that week, even if only one team was responsible for an outbreak.
Here’s more from today’s memo, which also says the team responsible for a canceled game because of an outbreak among unvaccinated players/staff will be responsible for financial losses and subject to potential discipline from the commissioner. Wow. pic.twitter.com/Q86a2WcG1K
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 22, 2021
But this is all rather moot. The threat of forfeiting a game will only become a reality if the league cannot reschedule the game during the league’s 18-week season window. With no vaccine available last season, the NFL managed to play all 269 games, doing whatever it took to make sure every game would be played.
The Tennessee Titans had 24 players and staff with positive tests in less than a month, but their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers was rescheduled for later in the season. Additionally, their game against the Buffalo Bills became just the second NFL game played on a Tuesday since 1946.
An NFL memo in October said that “rescheduling options will become increasingly limited” as the season went on, but that didn’t stop the league from postponing a Thanksgiving game between the Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens three times, ultimately making it the first NFL game played on a Wednesday in recorded NFL history.
All told, the NFL shuffled 16 games last year because of COVID-19. The likelihood that outbreaks among unvaccinated players would even lead to rescheduling this season is already low, given that the NFL memo touts over 75% of players are in the process of being vaccinated, and more than half of the league’s teams have more than 80% of their players vaccinated.
Considering every team played last year with 0% of players vaccinated, the NFL almost certainly won’t be canceling games this season. For the NFL to cut regularly scheduled games out of its own schedule to protect vaccinated players from a virus they are already protected from is a pretty silly idea.
Especially when the league also recognizes natural immunity in a limited capacity, declaring previously infected players only need one dose of the vaccine to be considered fully vaccinated.
There really is no point in trying to strong-arm players and staff into getting the vaccine, anyway. All they can do is harm themselves, not other vaccinated individuals.
But the whole point of this is the glowing coverage from media figures in and outside of the sports world that the league’s announcement has predictably earned, meaning it already has been a resounding success.
