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You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / Vaccines carrots and sticks (NFL edition)

Vaccines carrots and sticks (NFL edition)

by David Anderson|  July 22, 20216:42 pm| 58 Comments

This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance, COVID-19

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The NFL had released their individual level protective protocols for COVID in June. Players were not mandated to get vaccinations. However vaccinated players would have life made far easier:

Players who are not fully vaccinated have to be tested for COVID-19 every day. They must wear masks at all times at team facilities and during team travel. They must remain physically distant from others in team facilities. They must quarantine after any high-risk exposure to the coronavirus. They will undergo travel restrictions. They must be limited regarding personnel in the weight room. They can’t eat with their teammates in the cafeteria. There are no social media/marketing/sponsorship activities permitted. They may not use the team sauna or steam room. They can’t leave team hotels to eat in restaurants, and they can’t interact with anyone outside of the team’s traveling party during team travel.

Vaccinated players have no such restrictions.

For players who are not stars or whose contracts make them readily cuttable, the business case for vaccination is easy — coaches will prefer vaccinated players because, all else being equal, a vaccinated player is far more likely to be available for a game on Sunday than an unvaccinated player. For the players who could look at their situation and figure out that they are closer to the bottom of the roster than the top, reducing roster variance risk is a damn good reason to get vaccinated.

And now, the NFL is strengthening the team based stick:

The NFL just informed clubs that if a game cannot be rescheduled during the 18-week season in 2021 due to a COVID outbreak among unvaccinated players, the team with the outbreak will FORFEIT and be credited with a loss for playoff seeding, per sources.

Massive implications.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 22, 2021

Unless a team is intentionally tanking, the risk of losing games due to COVID no-contests is likely to be intolerable to coaches as they construct their rosters and practice squads. Vaccination is not mandatory, but being unvaccinated for anyone who is not a Pro-Bowler is becoming an untenable business case.

I think many employers will being using modest carrots and very strong sticks to change the calculation of vaccination going forward. Vaccinations may not be mandatory but they will make life far easier for people who get vaccinated than those who do not. And if this logic is combined with steps to continue to make vaccine administration common and readily achievable with common barriers to access removed, this makes a lot of sense to me.

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Previous Post: « Repub Stupidity Open Thread: People for Whom It Is Impossible to Feel Sympathy
Next Post: Repubs For Whom It Is Impossible to Feel Sympathy, Pt. II: Pandemic Edition »

Reader Interactions

58Comments

  1. 1.

    trollhattan

    July 22, 2021 at 7:06 pm

    I predict the Raiders will be the first to forfeit.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    July 22, 2021 at 7:09 pm

    The pressure will only continue to escalate from here.

  3. 3.

    Van Buren

    July 22, 2021 at 7:10 pm

    Elections have consequences. If you elect not to take the vaccine, then accept the consequences.

  4. 4.

    The Dangerman

    July 22, 2021 at 7:14 pm

    Freedom isn’t free, assholes. I don’t care if you are vaccinated. Just go enjoy life in some shithole cave and don’t come out if you stay without the shot (doesn’t apply if you have a damn fine reason).

  5. 5.

    RSA

    July 22, 2021 at 7:15 pm

    David, do you think that insurance companies will play a role (e.g. is it possible for them to establish different rates?) in encouraging everyone to get vaccinated?

  6. 6.

    piratedan

    July 22, 2021 at 7:17 pm

    this is a business decision, because the NFL understands that cancelling games is a BFD and no one wants to lose out when people are passionate for a return to what was.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    July 22, 2021 at 7:21 pm

    As it is sports related, dropping this here.

    How to stream the Tokyo Olympics

  8. 8.

    trollhattan

    July 22, 2021 at 7:24 pm

    Ron Johnson says a truth.

    July 22, 2021 at 5:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

    Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told the Wisconsin State Journal: “I want to make sure that this U.S. Senate seat is retained in Republican hands. You see what the media’s doing to me. I may not be the best candidate. I wouldn’t run if I don’t think I could win, if I don’t think I was the best person to be able to win.”

    He also added: “I feel really bad that I’ve been here now probably 11 years and we’ve doubled the debt.”

    We feel bad too, Ron, that you are a senator.

  9. 9.

    debbie

    July 22, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    @Van Buren:

    They reinstated mask mandates in public schools here today. Outrage should erupt in 3, 2, …

  10. 10.

    CaseyL

    July 22, 2021 at 7:30 pm

    Wow.  A friend in Ocean Shores (a beach community on the Olympic Peninsula, and one of my favorite places) just told me there’s a big Covid breakout there, which has closed two restaurants.

    I guess Grays Harbor County is one of the Washington State areas with a low vax rate.

    Not only have I started masking again, I may never leave the house again.  (Yes, I’m fully vaxed.  No, I don’t want even “mild” Covid.)

  11. 11.

    debbie

    July 22, 2021 at 7:30 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Who forced him not to focus on the debt?  //

  12. 12.

    debbie

    July 22, 2021 at 7:32 pm

    @CaseyL:

    You sound like a kindred spirit. Will you start sanitizing surfaces again?

  13. 13.

    P Thomas

    July 22, 2021 at 7:32 pm

    Gives “Take one for the team” a whole new meaning.

  14. 14.

    dr. bloor

    July 22, 2021 at 7:33 pm

    I rarely applaud the NFL and am not at all naive about their motivation here, but credit is due for trying to do something other than randomly applying financial penalties for COVID violations to teams that can poop out cash faster than a golden goose.

    Devil is in the as-yet murky details about how to operationalize this, however.  My first thought is that telling teams they’re losing first-round draft choices for the next two years in the event of a cancellation would have the same impact on most GMs and head coaches without getting into the litigious quagmire involving lost revenues to teams and game checks to players.

  15. 15.

    VeniceRiley

    July 22, 2021 at 7:34 pm

    Republicans can stand on a mountain of hundreds of thousands of dead bodies and … whine about the debt. Leopard. Spots.

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 22, 2021 at 7:34 pm

    @trollhattan:

    He also added: “I feel really bad that I’ve been here now probably 11 years and we’ve doubled the debt.” 

    Sure Jan Ron.

  17. 17.

    CaseyL

    July 22, 2021 at 7:35 pm

    @debbie: Unless Delta is more transmissible on surfaces than Alpha, I don’t see that as necessary.

  18. 18.

    raven

    July 22, 2021 at 7:35 pm

    @CaseyL: It seems like every other person, and their kids, are out there this summer.

  19. 19.

    dr. bloor

    July 22, 2021 at 7:36 pm

    @trollhattan:

    He also added: “I feel really bad that I’ve been here now probably 11 years and we’ve doubled the debt.”

    It’s not easy to give both your primary opponents and general election opponents sound bites for negative ads, but Johnson is just the man for the job.

  20. 20.

    CaseyL

    July 22, 2021 at 7:37 pm

    @raven: Ocean Shores – the one in Washington – is normally a madhouse in the summer.  Pretty quiet the rest of the year.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    July 22, 2021 at 7:37 pm

    @mrmoshpotato

    Obviously more tax cuts are called for.

    //

  22. 22.

    raven

    July 22, 2021 at 7:38 pm

    @CaseyL: The one family I’m thinking of was all over the Olympic Peninsula.

  23. 23.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 22, 2021 at 7:39 pm

    @NotMax: I hear that those pay for themselves – somehow.

  24. 24.

    dr. bloor

    July 22, 2021 at 7:40 pm

    @CaseyL: ​
     

    I guess Grays Harbor County is one of the Washington State areas with a low vax rate.

    Barnstable County MA, however, is not, and Provincetown is in the middle of a spike among vaccinated residents/tourists. Happily, the vax cases are being described as pretty mild, which is reason enough to get jabbed.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    July 22, 2021 at 7:45 pm

    @trollhattan:

    He also added: “I feel really bad that I’ve been here now probably 11 years and we’ve doubled the debt.”

    I too feel bad that he has been there probably 11 years.

  26. 26.

    debbie

    July 22, 2021 at 7:50 pm

    @CaseyL:

    Thanks. I’m enjoying not doing that every night.

  27. 27.

    Kent

    July 22, 2021 at 7:56 pm

    @CaseyL: Wow. A friend in Ocean Shores (a beach community on the Olympic Peninsula, and one of my favorite places) just told me there’s a big Covid breakout there, which has closed two restaurants.

    I guess Grays Harbor County is one of the Washington State areas with a low vax rate.

    Not only have I started masking again, I may never leave the house again. (Yes, I’m fully vaxed. No, I don’t want even “mild” Covid.)

    There was a time in my memory when Grays Harbor was a Democratic (and union) stronghold. Now it is mostly MAGA-land and tweakers. So doesn’t surprise me that the vaccine rates are really low.

    EDIT: Looked it up. They are at 46% of total population vaccinated compared to 57% state-wide. So not horribly low, but also not keeping pace.  They went for Trump 52% to 45% so not total MAGA land but still…..

  28. 28.

    James E Powell

    July 22, 2021 at 7:59 pm

    @trollhattan:

    I’m hoping he runs for re-election because I think some other Republican might have a better chance. Am I wrong?

    We need an update on this race from our Wisconsin people.

  29. 29.

    A Ghost to Most

    July 22, 2021 at 8:05 pm

    Fuck Cole Beasley. I hope the Bills cut him for his jacksssery.

  30. 30.

    Mike in NC

    July 22, 2021 at 8:09 pm

    Got an email from Amazon today, saying I’d be getting my book order. So I walked by Alexa and was told it was at the front door a few minutes ago. Tomorrow I’ll dive in to “I Alone Can Fix It”.

  31. 31.

    Martin

    July 22, 2021 at 8:11 pm

    We’re fuckall out of carrots. Everyone is getting sticks.

  32. 32.

    WhatsMyNym

    July 22, 2021 at 8:13 pm

    @CaseyL:   A tourist town in a county with a low vax rate, who wouldn’t want to spend their holiday there.  //

    Grays Harbor County is at 43.5% of all residential fully vaccinated.

  33. 33.

    CaseyL

    July 22, 2021 at 8:13 pm

    @Kent:

    There was a time in my memory when Grays Harbor was a Democratic (and union) stronghold.

    Really? How far back? During the clear-cut-every-tree era? The timber industry collapsed, and took a lot of (union) jobs with it. (I don’t blame the spotted owl; I blame the robber barons who insisted on a non-sustainable harvesting business plan.)​

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    July 22, 2021 at 8:16 pm

    and now the knuckleheads (NFL or not) begin to understand that with rights…come responsibilities…

  35. 35.

    Martin

    July 22, 2021 at 8:18 pm

    @Kent: There was a time in my memory when Grays Harbor was a Democratic (and union) stronghold.

    Wasn’t that long you could describe the entire state of West Virginia that way. Clinton won it by 15. Obama lost it by  28, Trump won it by 40. That’s a hell of a swing in 5 elections.

  36. 36.

    Jeffro

    July 22, 2021 at 8:18 pm

    @trollhattan: should be interesting to see the GQP/Kochs/Mercers/etc try to cycle out their old, baggage-laden candidates for new blank slates (like Youngkin in VA)

    I don’t think it’s going to work.

    Our base is kinda on to them, and understands the stakes.

    Their candidates will eventually have to say what they’re for/against, and in a highly polarized environment, one where they’re in the minority, it should (knock on wood) be easy to just say “trumpov clone” or “billionaire lapdog” or whatever and win.

  37. 37.

    dr. bloor

    July 22, 2021 at 8:20 pm

    @A Ghost to Most: ​
     

    Beasley might be the least of their problems. Last I heard, Josh Allen refused to take the needle, and then there’s this.

  38. 38.

    Jeffro

    July 22, 2021 at 8:20 pm

    @Martin:We’re fuckall out of carrots. Everyone is getting sticks.

    I’m down with this plan, 100x

  39. 39.

    dr. bloor

    July 22, 2021 at 8:22 pm

    @Martin: Come sit by me.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    July 22, 2021 at 8:23 pm

    @Martin:

    We’re fuckall out of carrots.

    In Joe Biden’s America, the incentive is ice cream.

  41. 41.

    VOR

    July 22, 2021 at 8:25 pm

    @Baud: This is just standard Republican behavior. They screamed about deficits under Carter, then voted for Reagan’s tax cuts. They took the balanced budgets Clinton left them and voted for the Bush tax cuts. Even had to coin the term “Big Government conservative” to reflect the fact all their rhetoric about small government went out the window. They didn’t care about deficits until Obama took over. Then they didn’t care about Trump budget deficits and voted for his useless tax cuts. But now they all care about deficits now that Biden is in the White House.

  42. 42.

    WestTexan70

    July 22, 2021 at 8:26 pm

    NFL owners give a lot of support to maga knuckleheads.

    However, the magat players are finding out that their freedumbs stop when owner cash is involved.

    You do NOT fuck around with the money.

  43. 43.

    Anne Laurie

    July 22, 2021 at 8:29 pm

    @dr. bloor: Barnstable County MA, however, is not, and Provincetown is in the middle of a spike among vaccinated residents/tourists. Happily, the vax cases are being described as pretty mild, which is reason enough to get jabbed.

    Should be noted, for the record:  Provincetown is known as PartyTown in the summer — especially, although not exclusively, for gay men.

    Local tv media is not-quite-openly discussing the Provincetown outbreak as secondary to (a) ‘tourists’ lying about their vaxx status; and (b) horny young dudes who figure I got my first Pfizer/Moderna and it’s been a whole week — sure, I’m vaxxed!

    You pack enough panting sweaty bodies in an enclosed space, there will be infections.  As you say, the good news is that — for the *genuinely* vaccinated — these infections will mainly be mild & inconsequential.  (But I’d still advise staying away from raves, especially indoor ones, for at least this summer.)

  44. 44.

    Comrade Colette

    July 22, 2021 at 8:34 pm

    I am guessing the NFL or an individual team could mandate vaccines for their employees, if they chose to do so. My employer says “no vax, no coming in to the office.” And also, “everyone who wishes to stay employed and does not have a really, really good – and verifiable – reason will start coming to the office at least two days a week, starting in September.”

    So it’s a stick-and-stick approach. I’m completely OK with that, not least because a particularly annoying coworker was bellowing about “it’s a HIPAA violation!” on Zoom the other day. (We are a local government agency; HIPAA does not apply to us.) If this policy culls a few dopes and jerks, all the better.

  45. 45.

    Roger Moore

    July 22, 2021 at 8:36 pm

    @Jeffro:

    Their candidates will eventually have to say what they’re for/against, and in a highly polarized environment, one where they’re in the minority, it should (knock on wood) be easy to just say “trumpov clone” or “billionaire lapdog” or whatever and win

    It’s going to get tougher and tougher to win the Republican primary without going full MAGA Q nutjob.  That may be fine if the Republican primary is the de facto election, but it’s not going to go so well in places the Democrats are competitive.  Letting the crazies take over the party is going to drive purplish places like VA and CO further into blue territory.

  46. 46.

    Comrade Colette

    July 22, 2021 at 8:42 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Letting the crazies take over the party is going to drive purplish places like VA and CO further into blue territory.

    From your lips to the FSM’s delicately sauced orecchiette, but we’ve been waiting to get to that promised land for a few years now and it seems no closer. The last 5 years have shattered my faith that there is any such thing as “too crazy.”

    I am completely open to being talked off this ledge. The view from up here sucks.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    July 22, 2021 at 8:50 pm

    @Comrade Colette:

    I mentioned VA and CO because those are places that seem to have swung bigly into blue territory.  Some of that is a changing electorate, but a big part of it is that the Republicans have started to drive away people who used to vote for them.  Going full on crazy will probably continue to work in places that are solid red, or even purple trending red.  But places that are purple trending blue, and even in some places that are solid purple, embracing the crazy is not going to hurt.

  48. 48.

    Anonymous At Work

    July 22, 2021 at 8:56 pm

    @CaseyL: Washington has, or had (did they change it?) the laxest vaccination standards in the country to accommodate true snowflake liberals (sorry: progressive socialists not affiliated with liberals or Democrats).  The standard was “I don’t wanna”.

    So, no surprise there are bad outbreaks.  They’ve had Whooping Cough outbreaks and other pandemic diseases defeated in elsewhere.

  49. 49.

    Geminid

    July 22, 2021 at 8:58 pm

    @Roger Moore: It is harder to win a Republican primary if you are not a nutjob. That’s why Virginia Republicans chose the convention route to select their statewide candidates this year. Party leaders did not trust their voters, and they were terrified that State Senator Amanda Chase would score a plurality primary win and go on to drag downballot Republicans into the Dismal Swamp in November.

    So 30,000 self selected “delegates” dropped ballots off  in 27 places and picked a slick talking half-billionaire as their candidate. Youngkin essentially bought the nomination.

  50. 50.

    Anonymous At Work

    July 22, 2021 at 9:02 pm

    The biggest stick for the NFL is that a team that flunks pre-game COVID protocols forfeits on their record AND doesn’t get paid.  Unvaxxed players that aren’t Tom Brady will be cut quickly for that.  Tom Brady may find his offensive line suddenly has better things to do than block.

    Players objecting due to current racial disparities in medical care have a leg to stand on, but NFL is doing the right thing, economically, by making stand-outs pay.  Talking and raising the issue is fine, and right, but the NFL will make you chose what’s more important for 5 months.

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    July 22, 2021 at 9:08 pm

    @Geminid

    Wait, aren’t ballot dropboxes tools of satanic bloodaccino-sipping socialists?

    So confusing…

    //

  52. 52.

    westyny

    July 22, 2021 at 9:10 pm

    @dr. bloor: He’s getting dragged, which is somewhat reassuring.

  53. 53.

    Geminid

    July 22, 2021 at 9:19 pm

    @NotMax: They had purported humans at the “unassembled convention” sites to receive the ballots.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    July 22, 2021 at 9:23 pm

    @@Geminid

    Night of the Living Dropboxes.

  55. 55.

    dr. bloor

    July 22, 2021 at 9:55 pm

    @Anne Laurie: Yeah, I saw a bit in the Globe where casually it noted that 93% of the breakthrough cases were male, a statistic that has the unusual property of being both (a) a wild outlier and (b) completely unsurprising at the same time.

  56. 56.

    Yutsano

    July 22, 2021 at 11:02 pm

    @Anonymous At Work: I believe a lot changed after the last measles outbreak. The state got tired of “but mah woo!” holding back public health. I know a lot of the school standards got way tighter.

  57. 57.

    burnspbesq

    July 23, 2021 at 1:42 am

    I expect that Texas’ asshole AG will sue the NFL (and the SEC, which has taken a similar position). Man specializes in frivolous litigation, and he is facing multiple primary challengers includin George P. Bush.

  58. 58.

    OGLiberal

    July 23, 2021 at 7:22 am

    They should have a mandate but likely don’t because a few prima donna ticket selling lunatics just don’t want to get the shot because reasons.  Seriously, the NFLPA should require but they won’t for the previously mentioned reason.

    And while I have no idea why income status should matter I get that there is a wide, wide range of wealth in the NFL and these kids get effed in college.  But the aforementioned NFLPA fought hard to get the league minimum to $661k, more money per year than I’ll ever make. (Yeah, I don’t need to pay an agent, trainer, etc, but still)  Get the fucking shot.

    And nobody without the shot should have been allowed to go to Tokyo but that ship already sailed.

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