For 99.99 percent of the people who say they’re waiting to get the COVID vaccine until they get more information, the truth is that they’re hoping to run out the clock. They have no desire to get more information; they have no desire to get vaccinated, and citing a desire to get more information is a way to kick the vaccine can.
A nugget in an article from Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports underscores that fact.
“I’ve seen where guys are saying [to the media] that they want more information on vaccines — which I think is a fair approach,” an unnamed G.M. told Robinson. “But in terms of our staff working to inform [players] versus them coming to us for information, we’ve had more players asking questions about Toradol in the last week than we have about vaccines. I think some guys don’t want to be engaged on it, honestly. So we’re working on how to resolve that, how to get them what they need and what to do if we can’t reach that 85 percent. That’s going to be a project for some of us right up to [training] camp.”
Players are asking about Toradol because the NFL Players Association recently has urged players to further curtail use of the powerful painkiller, and players obviously are concerned about potential limits to their ability to mask any and all pain so that they can perform at a high level. They aren’t asking about the vaccine because they don’t really want information -- especially not the information that the team will provide. The team will provide to players information supporting the notion that the vaccine is safe, that it doesn’t consist of tiny microchips that will track their trips to Applebee’s or Target, that it doesn’t contain magnetic crystals (then again, that would be a great way to never lose your car keys), and that most of the supposedly objective information that counsels against the vaccine (typically from supposed experts who repeatedly claim they’re not anti-vaccine) is not reliable.
The challenge for teams becomes educating players who will otherwise plug their ears and proclaim “la-la-la-not-listening” that there’s a clear connection between being vaccined and not only having normalcy this season but also avoiding the possibility of not being able to play. Although players can’t be released for not being vaccinated, once players understand that teams want to get to the 85-percent threshold in order to have one less significant thing to worry about during the 2021 season, those who have any concern about their ability to remain on the 53-man roster or to get a spot on the practice squad will eventually have a dental-plan-Lisa-needs-braces epiphany.
Players have taken all sorts of things over the years aimed at getting them or keeping them on the field, with no regard to the potential side effects. Once they realize that getting the vaccine will be one of the ways to stay on the field in 2021, more of them will get it. If not, many of them simply won’t be on an NFL roster.