The NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported today that the national football league has informed its teams of new sanctions, that will be carried down if their is any stoppage of play, due to Covid 19 outbreaks caused by unvaccinated players. The punishments at huge implications and could wind up affecting the outcome of the season.
The Penalties
The biggest punishment seems to be that if a game cannot be rescheduled during the 18-week 2021 season due to a COVID outbreak among unvaccinated players, the team with the outbreak will FORFEIT and be credited with a loss for playoff seeding. A penalty of this magnitude could ended up causing a team their seed in the playoffs, or worse cause them to miss the playoffs all together. Players have already made statements regarding this new policy and they aren’t very happy.
Never thought I would say this, But being put in a position to hurt my team because I don’t want to partake in the vaccine is making me question my future in the NFL -DeAndre Hopkins
The Possible Backlash
Lets be honest the players are not gonna like this one bit. You can look forward to the players association getting involved at some point to voice their displeasure. Fans will likely also have a lot to say about these new policies. And if it costs their team wins you could see yet another dip in viewership. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t come to that and the players have a healthy season regardless of which path they choose to take.