The NFL’s new COVID policies are leaving some players unhappy

The NFL’s new COVID policies go to great lengths to encourage players to get vaccinated, with some players saying that the league has gone too far. How much will the policy affect the NFL? What football fans expect to see on Sundays? We asked Ken Shropshire, CEO of ASU’s Global Sport Institute.

“I think what we have to focus on is… First, these are employees of the business and much like some of the larger businesses we’ve been hearing about taking steps to address COVID, that’s what the NFL is doing,” Shropshire said.

The conversation surrounding the NFL is that, “…we can’t compel you to get the vaccination for whatever reasons, legally, socially whatever thoughts there are about not saying go get the vaccination, but we can tell you all the things that we’re not going to allow you to do, which may encourage you get the vaccination. But again, the NFL has good business reasons for this,” Shropshire said.

The worst case scenario, “If the virus runs rampant through the league, then they can’t play the games, they can’t make the money they can’t do all the things that this business needs to do so those the reasons behind it,” Shropshire said.

Some players could lose their jobs but, “…there are certainly some quality players where you’ll give a little bit more leeway… and maybe give another chance or you’ll find ways to help them practice the protocols properly but if you’re the third string offensive lineman and you haven’t been playing much anyway, that may not be right to exercise your personal rights,” Shropshire said.

Where do we go from here?

“If we take the best case of what’s going on here, ‘How do we get back to normalcy as rapidly as possible?’ And in this case the leaders have been decided that path is through vaccination, propelling players to get vaccinated, so that we don’t have to kill this issue any longer within the league or at least we’re part of society of racing to get to the point where it’s not the major concern that has been over the past, but it’s the same two years,” Shropshire said.