Today has been an interesting day for the NFL and its 32 teams as some new rules were handed down that could seriously shake up how everything goes down throughout the season. After experiencing numerous issues with rescheduled games last year, the league is looking to take serious action against teams who don't follow COVID-19 protocols. The league is also taking aim at players who have yet to receive a vaccine, and are therefore putting their teammates and opposing players at risk.
One of the major rules to come down this season is that if a team experiences an outbreak amongst unvaccinated players, they will have to forfeit their game. In addition to this, none of the players on either team will get their game checks if a game is canceled. This is a pretty massive move that already has some players contemplating their future.
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One such player is Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Deandre Hopkins who is adamant about not receiving the vaccine. In fact, he recently took to Twitter saying "Never thought I would say this, but being put in a position to hurt my team because I don't want to partake in the vaccine is making me question my future in the NFL." Hopkins eventually deleted the tweet although the sentiment was shared by other players, like Leonard Fournette.
"Vaccine I can't do it..." Fournette wrote before deleting the tweet as well. Needless to say, these players have strong feelings on the jab, but realize the backlash isn't worth keeping up their tweets.
With these attitudes permeating throughout the NFL, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the coming months.