NFL Threatens Severe Financial Penalties For Players Who Don’t Comply, Demands More Testing For Vaccinated Athletes

The Bears tight end Jimmy Graham recently shared his frustrations regarding the National Football League’s Association guidelines that have encouraged stricter testing and being “forced” to get vaccinated. The memo outlined new testing measures for players and severe financial penalties for those who miss appointments or don’t comply. They’ve even warned of forfeiting games if there are COVID-19 outbreaks among unvaccinated players. If it’s not about a stronger, more contagious Delta variant, it’s about infected and contagious players ruining their ‘woke’ games.

It started with a Twitter thread in which Graham wrote to the players association saying he was confused by the vaccination policies. Currently, 90% of the league is vaccinated and the NFL wants to increase testing among vaccinated players.

“Was basically forced into getting the vaccine. Now I’m just confused. I’ve done everything I’ve been asked and now Feel like I’m being punished. If I miss a test that your proposing every day I’ll be fined a max 150k! How does this make sense. How’s the punishment 100x worse than last year and I’m vaccinated now?” Graham tweeted.

Graham went on to admit that he got the vaccine because he felt no choice in taking it. The memo even states that since training camps began on July 25, about 65 players and staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.

Bears coach Matt Nagy says there is stuff going on with COVID-19 every day but that everyone is just trying to figure out what works best. Is this the land of delusion? Frequently testing vaccinated players?

Others have argued that only the ‘woke’ NFL seems to be singling out the unvaccinated players and treating them like prisoners. Daily Caller’s David Hookstead pointed out that the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will not force fighters to get vaccinated or place restrictions on them. He wrote that UFC president Dana White deserves credit “for having common sense in an era when it’s so rare.”

The NFL states that vaccines work and extensive research shows they have a greater than 80% effectiveness against the variants, but goes on to say that vaccinated people can “contract and spread” the Delta variant. It states that the delta variant is 50% more contagious than the original strain of the coronavirus and that it can spread up to 5-9 people, as opposed to 2-3 with the original virus.

The memo shares details of 2 outbreaks within their club facilities and states that the number of positive cases in the first week of training camp is “cause for concern.” Out of 2,528 players and 4,549 staff members, more than 65 had positive cases. 32 of these cases were vaccinated, individuals.

Even though the NFL updated its policies to lift most restrictions in June, the players association still recommends daily testing and mask-wearing. If their recommendations are approved, the NFL could reimplement these measures for all players, including those who are vaccinated.

Graham said he thought there was a “game plan” for players this season and said it was a bit frustrating for those who went out and got the vaccine just to “do the same thing and have another successful healthy season.” He said the recent memo undermined that vaccine plan and even spoke out against the additional games this season.

“I’ve been in the league going on 12 years now, and it’s been kind of frustrating at times with them [the NFLPA]. I’m not going to hold back. I’m a grown man. And I wish somebody would talk to me and speak to me like a grown man and let me have a little bit of say in some things. I’m about to go onto Week 17 playing for free as well. How does that make any sense? Who even petitioned for that? I certainly didn’t,” Graham said.

There are the people who got vaccinated for health concerns and the people who got vaccinated because they wanted life to return to a sense of normalcy. The second group isn’t as forgiving as the Biden Administration, woke associations, and other state governments look to reimplement COVID-19 lockdown measures against the “more contagious” Delta Variant. You can get all the shots and triple mask out of respect for others and the NFL will be ready to implement “a better solution.”