The NFL had to face the blade after they were pressurized to get the athletes vaccinated. They released a statement where they implied that teams have to forfeit the game and be awarded an L if the game is canceled due to an outbreak of the COVID-19 in their ranks. If such an outbreak is observed and the team also shelters unvaccinated NFL players, the teams will not be paid by the commission.
NFL Releases Memo For The 32 Teams
A 10-pager memo was jotted down by the NFL which affects the seedings in the playoffs. This was initially reported on the NFL Network.
The memo starts by mentioning the fact that the principles which are designed, are just to let them participate in a secure environment and address the issues with finances, fairly.
The memo came after various teams in the NFL failed to vaccinate most of their members. All the teams have more than 50% of their athletes vaccinated. The team from Washington and Indianapolis were the last ones to reach that threshold. The Saints and Dolphins were the first teams to touch 85% vaccinations by June.
The memo talks about how safe and efficient the vaccines are against the virus.
The NFL had to postpone several games by weeks because of such outbreaks in the camps and has chosen to be more aggressive in 2021. The schedule is quite compact as the teams will have to play in 17 games over a span of 18 weeks. There is a very small window to allow rescheduling right after the season starts.
The previous games which were postponed last season created many complications. The time between games had to be lengthened, the schedules of teams had to be reshuffled and sometimes a team that was on a short rest had to face one with a longer rest period.
The memo from the NFL spoke about how the games were obligated to start at a certain place and time. If a team fails to follow the conduct, it will be hampering them as they do not have a right to reschedule a game. The NFL also placed the financial burden on the team causing the outbreak. This was a common occurrence in the previous season as games were rescheduled due to the other team’s camp who were facing an outbreak.