COVID-19 could put a damper in our season if the NFL and NFLPA cannot come up with a plan. According to NFLPA president JC Tretter, the leagues testing is not effective.
“Since the beginning of training camp, we have been testing our vaccinated players once every 14 days,” Tretter writes in a new column at the union’s official website. “It has been ineffective as we’ve had significantly more incidents of transmission inside the building this year than last year. The NFLPA saw this coming months ago and has been advocating for a return to daily testing because it is more effective way to stop and prevent the spread of the coronavirus in our locker rooms. However, the NFL decided to move to weekly testing; and while that is a step in the right direction, it leaves us open to many of the same problems we’ve been facing.”
“Recently, Tennessee finished up with 14 positives — and the team was 97% vaccinated at that time,” Tretter explains. “It’s not hard to realize how devastating that would be during a week of the regular season. Yet, incidents like this have flown under the radar because players missing training camp practices or preseason games isn’t big news. That will not be the case moving forward and a few teams are already without, or at risk of being without, key starters heading into this opening weekend.”
I know it is a pain to be tested every day, but there have been several cases already where NFL coaches who are vaccinated have spread through the facility. If the players and coaches were tested daily, it would be more effective.
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