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OXNARD, Calif .– Last summer, Ezekiel Elliott became the Dallas Cowboys’ most prominent player to contract COVID-19, tested positive for the virus at the 2020 preseason gate. This year he says he has chooses to be vaccinated.
Although he has first-hand knowledge of the impact of COVID, Elliott says he won’t advise other players on their decision as Dallas tries to meet the league’s proposed 85% vaccination standard.
“It’s a bit of a touchy subject,” Elliott said of player vaccination. “You can’t really tell someone what to do with their body. I grew up in a family where we didn’t have vaccines. It’s a little hard to tell someone who [during] all their life, their mom and dad tell them not to get vaccinated, [to tell that person] go get vaccinated. It’s everyone’s body. You can’t tell them what to do with it.
“I got the shot just because I wanted to put myself in the best position to be there for my team week after week. I mean, not everyone feels this strongly or maybe other people still have their thoughts on vaccines. You can’t force someone to do something they don’t want to do with their body.
While the NFL can’t say it disagrees with this premise, the league is now getting as close as possible to making vaccines mandatory. After first implementing a campaign to educate players about vaccines and then a series of incentives to encourage getting vaccinated, the NFL took a more drastic step on Thursday, essentially threatening franchises and players with significant monetary impacts for any schedule disruption related to COVID infections.
This included a financial hammer that would raise eyebrows that will befall franchise owners and players, with the league saying if a team disrupts the schedule due to coronavirus infections, both the teams participating in the match will return the match checks for all players, and the team responsible for the schedule disruption will lose the match and be responsible for covering all monetary costs incurred by the other team during the match week.
This is news that caught the attention of some Cowboys players when they learned she was walking off the training ground on day one of training camp.
“Did you say game control?” Elliott said in shock on Thursday, before laughing out loud at his own reaction. “I mean, you just told me something new.”
This was new information absorbed throughout the league on Thursday, prompting a handful of reactions from players who take note of the league’s tougher line. That included DeAndre Hopkins, the expansion of the Arizona Cardinals, who tweeted and then deleted a post that appeared to suggest retirement as an option over the league’s new stance on vaccines.
“I never thought I would say that, but being put in a position to hurt my team because I don’t want to participate in the vaccine makes me question my future in the NFL,” Hopkins tweeted.
This is just the latest foray into the debate on the NFL’s harsh pressure to vaccinate the majority of its players, which recently included argumentative flashpoints involving Buffalo Bills wide Cole Beasley – who has been fiercely anti -vaccination – and Hall of Fame Michael Irvin, who suggested to ESPN that unvaccinated Cowboys players show they aren’t all-in to win a Super Bowl.
These two points have clearly shown the growing embarrassment that the debate on vaccination can create within franchises. Beasley’s repeated complaints about the vaccination have led some to suggest that fellow Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs was subtly tugging at his teammate on Thursday when Diggs cryptically tweeted “responsibility… availability.” And when Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked about Irvin’s suggestion that refusing to get the shot was tantamount to not participating in a Super Bowl, Jones spoke enthusiastically of Irvin’s dedication and called his dedication to “exceptional message”.
To say the least, it’s all about a national vaccine controversy that is making its way into the locker room. This is something Elliott said he understood, despite choosing to get shot.
“Like I said, it’s everyone’s body,” Elliott said. “You have to respect that. You can’t just – [fining someone] a check is only monetary. You can’t put a price on someone’s health or what they think will make them feel good or not make them feel good. You’re sort of walking a narrow line.
Elliott isn’t the first player to talk about paying attention to this line. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has suggested the same over the past few months while declining to express his feelings about the vaccine or the league’s efforts. But walking the line – or the existence of a line – is no longer up for debate. The NFL made that clear on Thursday. A line exists. And if players and teams cross it, there will be serious financial consequences in 2021.
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