Falcons become first NFL team with all players vaccinated against COVID-19
from Zac Wassink, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
The Atlanta Falcons have made some noteworthy history heading into Saturday’s preseason showdown at the Miami Dolphins.
The Falcons confirmed on Monday they have all of their players fully vaccinated against COVID-19. They are the NFL’s first team to hit a 100% vaccination rate among players.
“Each player will now enjoy the benefits of being able to work out and eat together,” Scott Bair noted for the club’s website. “They won’t have to test daily, won’t have to wear masks around the facility and won’t have to quarantine following a close contact with someone who tests positive.”
As has been seen throughout the summer, MLB teams such as the New York Yankees have still endured positive COVID-19 test results despite having personnel fully vaccinated. The hope is that the safe and available vaccines will prevent an outbreak from occurring within a team that could make that squad unavailable to play on a scheduled date once the regular season kicks off in September.
A team can be made to forfeit this fall if it’s unable to play at any point due to a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated personnel, so having as many players fully vaccinated as possible before Week 1 behooves all involved. Last week, however, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported “‘a ton’ of star players are opposed to the vaccine” even though 90% of players league-wide had received at least one shot as of that time.
The NFL isn’t hiding it wants all personnel fully vaccinated as soon as possible, but both the league and NFL Players Association have insisted players cannot be cut only for remaining unvaccinated.