>> Sam, have you been vaccinated and kinda where do you come down on them?
>> I haven't been vaccinated yet. >> This is former New York Jets and current
Carolina Panthers quarterback, Sam Darnold. >> Still got to think about
all those certain things that go into it. >> Like what, Sam?
What things do you need to think about at this point?
>> Again, it's everyone's choice whether they wanna get vaccinated or not. So that's
really all I got on it. I don't wanna go too into detail. But yeah, I haven't been vaccinated yet.
>> The reason you don't want to go into detail is simple.
You have no argument. Meanwhile- >> I'm pretty open to everything. I'm not
gonna say no or anything like that. >> For a man being pretty open to everything,
his short-sightedness is showing. >> Yeah, I have been. I mean,
for me I'm just staying by myself right now, I don't have a family or anything like that so,
again there's a ton of different things that go into it.
>> I know reporters need to build relationships with the team,
but here's a perfect follow-up opportunity by asking simply
what sorta things do you mean, Sam? >> I'm gonna evaluate that on my own and
make the best decision that I feel like is, again, the best for myself.
>> In essence, tell me you're an anti-science Trump supporter without telling me your are
an anti-science Trump supporter. Many had their fun with Darnold. However,
this remains a serious issue with some athletes who talk leadership after every
game in front of the media, showing they have none to combat a worldwide pandemic.
Lest we forget, Sam Darnell miss time this past season because he had the infectious disease mono.
On his choice, one user wrote, I've seen Sam Darnold throw back across the
field into traffic, enough to know that decision-making isn't his strong suit.
PFT's Mike Florio put it like this, Darnold should start by talking to Team Doctors.
And if that's not good enough, he should talk to NFL doctors.
And if that's not good enough, he should talk to union doctors. And if that's not good enough,
he should call team owner David Tepper for a list of epidemiologists who service the
insanely rich. The National Football League has incentivized players getting vaccinated.
If they had not received the jab as of Monday, unvaccinated coaches and team
staff lost the ability to interact with players in person after the league loosened a host of
restrictions last month on vaccinated players. As of that change, those players were required
to be tested no more than once a week, did not have to wear masks at team facilities,
were not subject to quarantine as part of any contact tracing.
Could eat in team cafeterias, and could use saunas and steam rooms. Per Florio again.
If he ultimately chooses not to get the vaccine, in other words, if he chooses to be tested every
day of football season then to have other restrictions apply for six or seven months,
including not being able to go out of town during the bye week, that's his business.
The endgame of this all is going to be to get people vaccinated, said Dr. Anthony Fauci,
a man who has studied infectious diseases, and is at the top of his field longer than Sam Darnold
has been alive. Meanwhile, in Darnold's state, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper is expected
to announce a new statewide incentive program to get people to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
Because Americans, through our own ignorance, need incentive to get it other than not dying.
This new program comes as the state's vaccination rate has leveled off and a
pilot program that offered $25 cash cards in four counties,
showed promise in convincing some people to take the shot. On Darnold's own team,
place kicker Joey Slye placed his decision to get vaccinated in a personal context.
He said he and his family consulted with the medical team that had cared for his older
brother who died of leukemia in 2014, shortly before Slye began playing at Virginia Tech.
Let's just call it what it is. It's selfish for Darnold, Josh Allen, Cole Beasley and the like.
It's a selfish move. The post Michael Gerson wrote, in the case of a pandemic,
free riders are those who enjoy the positive result when other people get vaccinated.
Lower transmission of the virus and eventual herd protection,
but refuse to take a tiny risk and get vaccinated themselves. The challenge comes,
of course, when lots of people realize they can be free riders, and the public good is destroyed.
As for Darnold's usage of framing the inevitable,
ESPN's Bomani Jones wrote at Darnold, we don't have to use
yet in these cases. There's no impediment left to getting the vaccine. He just ain't gonna do it.