HERE'S HOW YOU DO IT

The NFL doesn’t get many things right, but they sure as hell got this right (from the WaPo “Daily 202” newsletter):

The biggest pandemic news yesterday didn’t come from the White House or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Pfizer, or China. It came from the National Football League, which issued a get-your-shot heard 'round the world. 

With coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surging among unvaccinated Americans, the NFL did not explicitly require players to get the jab(s), but laid out a system of penalties designed to overcome what in some cases has been very public resistance. 

The league’s decision came as President Biden has been imploring people to get vaccinated and his administration has been debating whether to make another public relations push behind mask wearing in the face of the delta variant. 

“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," the NFL declared. "We will seek to minimize the burden on the 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."

What kind of “burden”? If a game can’t be rescheduled inside the 18-week season, the forfeiting team will be considered to have lost, the other team to have won, with corresponding impact on standings and playoff seeding. 

Oh, and neither team’s players will get paid for the canceled game.

“According to a person familiar with the situation, 78 percent of NFL players have received at least one vaccine dose, and 14 of the 32 teams have more than 85 percent of their players vaccinated. No team is below the 50 percent threshold, according to that person.”  (In the overall American population, 48.8 percent of people are fully vaccinated, and 56.4 percent have had at least one dose.)

The league has its share of vaccine resisters. 

Shortly after the NFL announcement, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins tweeted: “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.” (He deleted the tweet.) 

Whether the NFL announcement will inspire other giant corporate interests — including other sports leagues — to adopt similar measures is unclear.