Wow...NFL attempting to make vaccines mandatory for NFL players now...NFLPA not with it

[NickelCity]

31 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

No canceled games. You play with who you have. Like how they made one team play with no QBs last year. Washington?

 

But I fully expect the NFL to play favorites again.

 

Denver, wasn't it?

[Punching Bag]

1 hour ago, Kwai San said:

 

I agree with this......the whole season could just go right off the rails in a very short period of time.  How do you compensate people who buy tickets to a game, reserve hotels, get travel accommodations?  That right there is a rather large investment for some fans of which would go right out the window if a team were to forfeit a game or move a game.  Last season was a different animal all together.  With no fans it was relatively easy to massage the schedule....this season that is out the window.  Can you even begin to imagine the lawsuits that would occur?  And in our litigious society you damn well know that will happen.

 

 

They have not done so when they moved games whether for virus, weather, or ratings so they are not going to now.

[clayboy54]

9 minutes ago, NickelCity said:

 

Denver, wasn't it?

Yes. Washington had no QB on their own account.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

13 minutes ago, Buffalo Boy said:

Sounds good to me.

Still super pissed about Titans getting what amounted to a two week bye before playing us when they were the cause of the problem. Some serious BS , that!

 

I See No Lies.

[Success]

48 minutes ago, transplantbillsfan said:

All vaccination/political discussion aside... if the NFL and NFLPA Allowed the vaccination mandate, it doesn't seem like anyone could argue against the fact that it would lift at least one very real weight of worry we have with this team this year.  The only potential negative result I would see is Beasley following through on his threat to retire.

If all we lost was Beasley, I'd be for it.  I really wouldn't mind seeing him move on at this point.  I absolutely love him on the field, but he has become way too much of a distraction. I can also see him missing more than a few games.

 

I'd wonder how many would go that route, though.  Would some of the younger guys like Davis really opt out of their career if it was mandated?  It could be devastating for the Bills if none of our unvaxxed guys are willing to budge.

 

[Punching Bag]

2 hours ago, Mat68 said:

Increase the projected cap next year by 10% and the NFLPA will fold like a cheap tent.  

 

Are you suggesting NFLPA prefers carets to carrots?

[Patrick Duffy]

1 hour ago, ScottLaw said:

Until another WR gets hurt, then all of a sudden their WR unit looks incredibly subpar…. 

Depends which WR that got hurt. As long as it's not Diggs, the WR unit will never be subpar

[LeGOATski]

20 minutes ago, clayboy54 said:

Yes. Washington had no QB on their own account.

That must've been what threw me off 😄

[Success]

3 minutes ago, Sheneneh Jenkins said:

Depends which WR that got hurt. As long as it's not Diggs, the WR unit will never be subpar

 

I agree w/ that to an extent, but if there was a week that Beasley & Davis are out (which could be every other week for all we know), and then someone like Sanders got hurt....we'd be pretty thin.

 

[Patrick Duffy]

2 minutes ago, Success said:

 

I agree w/ that to an extent, but if there was a week that Beasley & Davis are out (which could be every other week for all we know), and then someone like Sanders got hurt....we'd be pretty thin.

 

Well yeah, any team missing 3 WRs would be tough.

5 minutes ago, Success said:

 

I agree w/ that to an extent, but if there was a week that Beasley & Davis are out (which could be every other week for all we know), and then someone like Sanders got hurt....we'd be pretty thin.

 

My point was if another WR got hurt it in no way makes this Bills unit "subpar" like other poster stated. This is about as good Bills WR's have been with the depth this year

[Fred Slacks]

Everyone’s seems to be strongly opinionated about Beasley because he isn’t on their same narrative. But you’re also assuming the rest fall in line with that belief which they may or may not. Strong stance. But what if it’s mandated and Josh Allen sits out cause he’s not wanting to get vaccinated. Just assuming he’s gotten it or will is a big assumption. 
 

I see no reason why we can’t play this season the exact way we did last season pre vaccine. We made it through then surely we can do it again. 
 

This doesn’t need to be an issue. Mandating anything will make it an issue. 
 

Also the Supreme Court ruling back in 1912 was a $150 fine for not vaccinating. They didn’t pin the man down and vaccinate his child because he refused to vaccinate it. Just so we have the correct context. Any mandate that is applied people will still have freedom to choose. Like employers requiring it and employees quoting their jobs. The exact same could happen in the NFL. This is not as simple as many on here think it is. 
 

playing devils advocate assume JA is anti Covid vaccine like Beasley. You think the Bills would be stoked if it’s mandated and JA walks away and says he’s not getting it?  They just guaranteed him $150 million. 
 

Just food for thought. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, Billzgobowlin said:

I could see your point if it stopped you from getting Covid or even spreading it...

 

Why does it have to stop it?  What if it "just" reduces the chance of a player getting Covid or even spreading it?

 

Let's reframe as hypothetical Football question on a different topic. 

 

Suppose there's a treatment that doesn't eliminate the risk of knee injury but reduces it, thus reducing the risk of missing multiple games or even a season.  Would the players want it? 

 

Suppose it reduces the risk 100 fold.  My guess is they'd line up en masse.  A mandate wouldn't matter.  Side effects at the 10 per 100,000 wouldn't matter.

 

Now make that hypothetical treatment 10 fold, or 5 fold, or only 3 fold reduction of risk. 

 

At what point do you think the players would stop wanting this hypothetical "knee injury reduction treatment"?

 

I dunno.  I tend to think even at 3 fold reduction of risk for missing games or losing a season due to a knee injury, the players would be like "*****, yeah, why wouldn't I?".

 

Because there's such a quagmire of misinformation and news without context around Covid, it's become a huge challenge for player to strip off the noise and really get down to facts and logic to make a decision (and despite what people think, I believe most NFL players are quite intelligent.  Not well educated, sometimes; make poor choices, sometimes; but modern NFL football is a complicated game.  I don't think you can master a modern NFL playbook if you're a dummy.)

 

Plus, because their bodies are their money-makers, the players understandably want to choose what goes in their bodies and not have it forced on them.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

14 minutes ago, Fred Slacks said:

Everyone’s seems to be strongly opinionated about Beasley because he isn’t on their same narrative. But you’re also assuming the rest fall in line with that belief which they may or may not. Strong stance. But what if it’s mandated and Josh Allen sits out cause he’s not wanting to get vaccinated. Just assuming he’s gotten it or will is a big assumption. 
 

I see no reason why we can’t play this season the exact way we did last season pre vaccine. We made it through then surely we can do it again. 
 

This doesn’t need to be an issue. Mandating anything will make it an issue. 
 

Also the Supreme Court ruling back in 1912 was a $150 fine for not vaccinating. They didn’t pin the man down and vaccinate his child because he refused to vaccinate it. Just so we have the correct context. Any mandate that is applied people will still have freedom to choose. Like employers requiring it and employees quoting their jobs. The exact same could happen in the NFL. This is not as simple as many on here think it is. 
 

playing devils advocate assume JA is anti Covid vaccine like Beasley. You think the Bills would be stoked if it’s mandated and JA walks away and says he’s not getting it?  They just guaranteed him $150 million. 
 

Just food for thought. 

The problem with comparing last season vs this season is that the viral strain is different, its infectiousness is different, and the NFL protocols are different.

 

My personal perspective is that the NFL protocols need to be revised for the regular season, but I don't think getting 10% or even 30% more players vaccinated is the most effective change. 

 

If a player walks away and refuses to comply with NFL rules, my understanding is there are levels of penalties/loss of game checks and game-check amortized signing bonus) but eventually they forfeit their guarantees (like AB with Oakland).  That would be any NFL rules.

 

This isn't the place to discuss Supreme Court rulings and mandatory vaccine law.  We're also not discussing children here, we're discussing the NFL employer-employee relationship and potential employer rules, complicated by union representation and a CBA.

 

[Doc Brown]

6 minutes ago, nedboy7 said:

So these two idiots got fined for not wearing masks?  That is beyond stupid.  I get not wanting a vaccine.  It really is a personal decision. How is wearing a mask violate your body.  This is beyond stupid and inconsiderate of the team. 

What?

[transplantbillsfan]

49 minutes ago, Success said:

If all we lost was Beasley, I'd be for it.  I really wouldn't mind seeing him move on at this point.  I absolutely love him on the field, but he has become way too much of a distraction. I can also see him missing more than a few games.

 

I'd wonder how many would go that route, though.  Would some of the younger guys like Davis really opt out of their career if it was mandated?  It could be devastating for the Bills if none of our unvaxxed guys are willing to budge.

 

 

I could see Beasley retiring.  We know that Star isn't vaccinated... I don't know his reasons, but since he sat out last year I could also see him retiring.

 

The only other players I think we know for sure aren't vaccinated are Davis and Butler.  I don't think we'd miss Butler much, unless it was BOTH him and Star retiring.  Kinda doubt Davis would retire considering he's a 4th round draft pick making very little money who will be due a big contract in a couple years.

 

Don't know for sure, but I know Milano had to leave the facility for a day, but I thought I heard he was actually vaccinated.  If he chose to retire that would obviously hurt.

 

We've heard from Edmunds that he'd rather not talk about his status.  Again, if he's unvaccinated, he's also due a big contract coming up momentarily.

 

I've posted my reasoning for why I think Allen is already vaccinated.  If the vaccine were mandated and he doesn't have it I just think he'd get it just because of how much he loves football.

 

Rookies and UDFAs to me are all the more likely to have gotten vaccinated just because of their new status in the league and generally tenuous status on the team.

 

 

So.... I could absolutely see Cole and Star retiring if the vaccine were mandated.  I don't really think we lose anyone else.  Just my own speculation.

[Fred Slacks]

8 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

The problem with comparing last season vs this season is that the viral strain is different, its infectiousness is different, and the NFL protocols are different.

 

My personal perspective is that the NFL protocols need to be revised for the regular season, but I don't think getting 10% or even 30% more players vaccinated is the most effective change. 

 

If a player walks away and refuses to comply with NFL rules, my understanding is there are levels of penalties/loss of game checks and game-check amortized signing bonus) but eventually they forfeit their guarantees (like AB with Oakland).  That would be any NFL rules.

 

This isn't the place to discuss Supreme Court rulings and mandatory vaccine law.  We're also not discussing children here, we're discussing the NFL employer-employee relationship and potential employer rules, complicated by union representation and a CBA.

 

I only mentioned the other things as well because they were in other comments. 
 

They can lose game checks but guaranteed money is guaranteed money. The Bills are on the hook for that. 
 

Will be interesting how it plays out. New stuff evolving constantly. 

[ndirish1978]

4 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

I understand how it happened - the NFL-provided info was the original info underlying the protocols, and the expert given info was revised based on what the expert was currently seeing in practice - but it  led to a huge loss of trust.

 

This makes a lot of sense, thanks for that insight. To be clear, I'm not questioning the medical professionals, whom I have zero reason to distrust or cast aspersions on. My issue is that I mistrust the league and I don't believe they care about anything more than making money so I don't look at announcements that they are consider changing a policy as an update to changing medical conditions. The political side has been mismanaged. If they wanted everyone vaccinated they should have just mandated it and worked something out with the NFLPA, instead they penalized players with things like telling them they couldn't have endorsements without being vaccinated. I don't believe that removing an endorsement from a player could be considered being made with health concerns in mind.

[Patrick Duffy]

17 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

Let’s say Sanders gets hurt. You have Diggs, Davis, McKenzie and Kumerow…. If I’m a DC I just take away Diggs and I’m pretty confident the other guys won’t beat us.

Well that would be a very bad assumption by any DC. So if you were to "take away " Diggs, it would require a double team a lot of the time. That would make Davis's, (which I'm sure you are aware is a pretty solid WR,) day a little easier. Add McKenzie's quickness along with how impressive he has looked in the slot, he would eat it up with all the attention on Diggs.

 

Kumerow I;ll give you, Although we know he can make plays too. In any event if that is any DC's mindset, I would not be happy with him if I'm HC. Also in no way Bills WR's would be "subpar" in that scenario.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Sheneneh Jenkins

[John from Riverside]

I dont think I agree with manditory shots......Im not ready to go there on that

[Hapless Bills Fan]

7 minutes ago, ndirish1978 said:

 

This makes a lot of sense, thanks for that insight. To be clear, I'm not questioning the medical professionals, whom I have zero reason to distrust or cast aspersions on. My issue is that I mistrust the league and I don't believe they care about anything more than making money so I don't look at announcements that they are consider changing a policy as an update to changing medical conditions. The political side has been mismanaged. If they wanted everyone vaccinated they should have just mandated it and worked something out with the NFLPA, instead they penalized players with things like telling them they couldn't have endorsements without being vaccinated. I don't believe that removing an endorsement from a player could be considered being made with health concerns in mind.

I had missed that aspect.  On the surface, it sounds like a point but what do the endorsements involve?

 

If it’s like signings or appearances at public events, I can see it tracking with reduced risk, but my take is NONE of the players, vaxxed or not, should be “pressing palms” with the public during the season right now