I’m not sure why they’re surprised, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some other teams made the same considerations
Urban Meyer admits players’ vaccination status played role in Jaguars’ roster cuts
Like 31 other NFL teams, the Jacksonville Jaguars announced their 53-man roster for the 2021-22 season on Tuesday.
Usually, deciding which player makes the cut comes down to their current talent, their future potential, their contract status and the quality of the other players at their position. In a pandemic, however, there was apparently another consideration to make.
Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer told reporters that whether or not a player is vaccinated was considered when deciding who made the cut:
“Everyone was considered. [Vaccination status] was part of the the production, ‘Let’s start talking about this, and also is he vaccinated or not?’ Can I say that that was a decision maker? It was certainly in consideration.”
One entity not happy with Meyer admitting vaccination status played a role in roster cuts is the NFL Players Association, whose spokesman said the following in a text to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio:
“These comments have led us to open an investigation.â€
Per PFT, the rules currently prohibit considering vaccination status in making employment decisions. This came up when Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane said he would cut an unvaccinated player, which led to a rebuke from NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and a talking-to from the NFL.
Do you think the Jaguars are the only ones?
Still, Meyer probably wouldn’t be alone in considering vaccination status. He’s just the only one who said it out loud.
As things currently stand, players who choose to remain unvaccinated are opening themselves and their team to a good bit of trouble thanks to the NFL’s COVID-19 policies, considered the most strict in major American sports. (snip)
Most importantly, an unvaccinated player or group of unvaccinated players can trigger absolute chaos if they are at the center of a COVID-19 outbreak. Teams with unvaccinated outbreaks face forfeits if a game cannot be rescheduled as well as financial penalties for the organization and the players themselves.
So, yeah, you can bet this was considered for all teams.
Meanwhile, in other mandate news
- Over half of employers plan to have vaccine mandates by the end of the year
- Mayor Scott Announces Vaccine Mandate For Baltimore City Employees, Effective Oct. 18
- School Vaccine Mandates: Here They Come
- Vaccine mandate creates discord among San Francisco Symphony musicians
- Health care workers join protest against vaccine mandate
- Chicago School Bus Drivers Have Quit In Droves Over COVID Vaccine Mandate
And
Democratic lawmakers drop idea for a California statewide vaccine mandate
Democratic lawmakers have dropped a controversial proposal to mandate vaccines in the state, a move that would have been challenging to pass in the final weeks of the legislative session and was already providing fodder for the upcoming recall election.
Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) said she will not pursue the proposal this year after drafts of her bill language were leaked last week, saying she needed more time to craft “the strongest bill possible.†(snip)
The draft language called for Californians to show proof that they are vaccinated to enter many indoor businesses and required both public and private sector workers to be fully vaccinated or regularly tested.
The real reason it was dropped was because they were trying to sneak it into another bill and got caught, and it would have been a big problem for Gavin Newsome, who is, as you know, facing a recall vote. They were trying to be sneaky.
The NFLPA is just pissed that Urban Meyer said the quiet part out loud. Vaccination status was not supposed to be considered — wink, wink, nudge, nudge — but it was and everyone knew it was.