Bruce Arians advocates letting vaccinated,…
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The pandemic is forcing the NFL to view its protocols in a new way.
With an explosion of positive COVID results and with the vast majority of those players not having symptoms, the powers-that-be are warming up to the notion of letting players who are vaccinated, asymptomatic, and positive for COVID to play.
Via Greg Auman of TheAthletic.com, Bucs coach Bruce Arians told reporters on Friday, “If you’re asymptomatic, you should be allowed to play.”
The league hasn’t gotten to that point yet, in large part because the NFL Players Association hasn’t gotten to that point. The NFL recently pushed for no testing at all of vaccinated and asymptomatic players, and the union (which still wants daily testing) resisted.
For now, the NFL and NFLPA have agreed to a procedure that allows vaccinated and asymptomatic players to return faster than before. In time, more and more coaches, executives, and owners will be making the case that players who are vaccinated and not sick should be allowed to play, even if they are positive. The league has believed from the get go that transmission of the virus doesn’t occur during games. Nothing that has happened in the past two seasons undermines that concept.
If anything, the presence of fans in full stadiums without accompanying outbreaks shows that, in open-aired stadiums or domes, the virus doesn’t transfer like it does in confined spaces.
The union will have to agree to this approach. While it’s unlikely for 2021, it could become the new normal for the third season of a very abnormal time for the NFL.
Bruce Arians advocates letting vaccinated, asymptomatic players play, despite being COVID positive
