Cole Beasley Rips NFLPA Over COVID-19 Restrictions
Cole Beasley has joined Joe Mixon in ripping the NFL Players Association after the league released its COVID-19 protocols for the 2021 season.
As would be expected, the restrictions on unvaccinated players are far harsher than those who have been vaccinated. While vaccinated players can mostly return to normal, those who haven't gotten the vaccine essentially face the same restrictions as in 2020.
Mixon took to Twitter on Wednesday to blast the NFLPA for allowing such harsh restrictions against unvaccinated players and Beasley joined him on Thursday.
As we discussed yesterday during Mixon's outburst, there are obvious reasons why the restrictions are what they are: to protect players from getting or spreading a deadly virus. While Beasley doesn't think the players' union is standing up for him, what it is doing is protecting the rest of the players from the unvaccinated guys. Vaccines aren't foolproof, a small percentage of vaccinated people will get COVID-19. But if enough people get the vaccine it won't matter, because the number of unprotected people will be so small the spread will stop.
So while Beasley doesn't feel like the NFLPA isn't standing up for his interests, it is standing up for the interests of other players. Besides, it's just smart to get the vaccine as a competitive advantage. Teams with a large number of vaccinated players are less likely to have someone miss a big game during the season because if a positive test, or have a key player suffer long-term issues like Jayson Tatum did.
When Beasley was asked why he hadn't gotten the vaccine he replied the way all the anti-vax folks have:
Well, if you're not getting the vaccine, therefore impacting your team and going public complaining about restrictions put on you, then yes you might have to explain yourself.