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The NFL has made it abundantly clear that they aren’t messing around with COVID this year. A memo was sent out Thursday to all 32 NFL teams, with strong tones that the league is taking the potential impact of unvaccinated players very seriously. According to the memo: “If a game is cancelled/postponed because a club cannot play due to a Covid spike among or resulting from its non-vaccinated players/staff, then the burden of the cancellation or delay will fall on the club experiencing the Covid infection. We will seek to minimize the burden on opposing club or clubs. If a club cannot play due to a Covid spike in vaccinated individuals, we will attempt to minimize the competitive and economic burden on both participating teams.”
… The league is saying that they will help and support teams that are vaccinated more than teams that are not, basically telling them that if they have to miss a game because of an outbreak amongst unvaccinated individuals, that they’re screwed financially and from a competitive standpoint.
… The memo continues: “If a game cannot be rescheduled within the current 18-week schedule and is cancelled due to a Covid outbreak among non-vaccinated players on one of the competing teams, the club with the outbreak will forfeit the contest and will be deemed to have played 16 games for purposes of draft, waiver priority, etc. For the purposes of playoff seeding, the forfeiting team will be credited with a loss and the other team will be credited with a win.”
… The league is telling its teams that if you don’t want to be credited with a loss, get vaccinated.
… Here’s the biggest penalty: “If a game is cancelled and cannot be rescheduled within the current 18-week schedule due to a Covid outbreak, neither team’s players will receive their weekly salary.”