NFL should be wary of Rahm’s cautionary tale
Maybe Sam Darnold just doesn’t watch a lot of golf. The Carolina Panthers quarterback was asked this week about COVID-19 vaccines and his response was ... not entirely enthusiastic.
“There’s a ton of different things that go into (the decision),” he told reporters. “I’m going to evaluate that on my own and make the decision that I feel is the best for myself.”
Darnold’s coach, Matt Rhule, subsequently said he “won’t tell anyone what to do,” which is presumably not a blanket statement about how he approaches the job of being an NFL head coach: “I think we should probably try the field goal here, but honestly fellas, it’s up to you. Whatever you feel makes sense for you.”
Darnold is far from the only NFL player to voice at least a little vaccine skepticism. Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on a podcast in April that he was waiting to see what the statistics told him to do, while confessing that he hadn’t given the vaccine question much thought. He’s since said he’s glad that players can make their own decisions, and won’t disclose his ultimate choice. Washington pass-rusher Montez Sweat was rather more blunt, saying this week that he was “not a fan at all” of his team’s efforts to provide outside medical opinions in support of getting a COVID vaccine. He also noted, “I don’t see myself treating COVID until I actually get COVID,” which if nothing else suggests he ought to have paid closer attention during the vaccine information session. Guys like Darnold and Sweat vowing to conduct their research on vaccines can’t be entirely comforting to their employers, given the amount of disinformation floating about on the internet. Hopefully, they won’t be consulting Dr. Facebook.
But back to golf. As much as there are many good reasons for anyone to get vaccinated, to protect their health and the health of those around them, and to help society at large move beyond this awful pandemic, professional athletes have now entered a period when there is a potentially significant competitive disadvantage should they choose not to receive a shot. PGA Tour player Jon Rahm provided the starkest possible example of the scenario when, while leading the Memorial tournament last weekend by six shots after three rounds, he had to withdraw before the final round due to a positive COVID test. Rahm didn’t say whether he had been vaccinated, but the PGA Tour is only testing unvaccinated players, so a Sherlockian deduction is not required here. In opting against a vaccine (so far), Rahm left himself more likely to test positive, which cost him a very good chance at a win and a Us$1.6-million payday.
Rahm, 26, is one of many athletes who, being young and in good health, would be at relatively low risk from a COVID infection. (He was asymptomatic in this case, and said he had tested positive before.) This was an argument often made in the early phase of the pandemic, when sports were sending players back out on to fields and courses while many of us were still working from home — “they are young, they’ll be fine.” But the vaccines have changed the question. Now the decision to take one isn’t just about one’s own health — not to mention the health of their families and those around them — but it’s about avoiding a positive test, whether or not the athlete in question feels perfectly fine. And while overall case rates have dropped precipitously in places where vaccination has risen, those who choose to remain unvaccinated will remain at risk of positive tests as the virus continues to circulate in that community for what will likely be some time yet.
A golfer or tennis player will only hurt themselves if they forgo the vaccine and end up with a test result that forces them out of a tournament, but players on team sports risk a different kind of blowback. What if Sam Darnold misses training camp because of a positive COVID test? What if he wins the starting job at quarterback and then is suddenly forced to miss game time? Darnold once missed three weeks with mononucleosis, so it’s not like he can claim to be unaware of the risks of infectious disease.
Bills GM Brandon Beane recently declared that “everyone was on the same page” about the vaccines at voluntary off-season workouts, but that seems to mean “it will be up to the players to decide.” He has previously said that he wants the Bills to reach the vaccination threshold of 85 per cent, which allows certain NFL safety protocols to be relaxed, and went so far as to suggest he might cut an unvaccinated player near the end of camp if it meant getting to that threshold, since the loosened rules would themselves be a competitive advantage. The league reportedly told Beane that he couldn’t cut someone for that reason alone, but he could always choose some other stated explanation, such as “not good enough at football.”
It’s an odd thing to watch teams approach the vaccine question so gently. NFL players put themselves at considerable physical risk just by playing football, and we always hear of guys who would go back out on the field with a broken arm taped to their side if the doctors would just let them. The league had to implement many safety protocols just to keep coaches from sending potentially concussed players back in. On this, for now at least, they are being unusually cautious. Perhaps they will start explaining the Jon Rahm story. I’m not sure whether it’s the carrot or the stick.