The NFL and the NFL Players Association have given players another good reason to get vaccinated.
The league and the players’ union have agreed that if a fully vaccinated player gets COVID-19 anyway, that player will still receive any per-game roster bonuses called for in his contract in games he misses. Unvaccinated players who miss games with COVID-19 will not receive per-game roster bonuses.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports that the newly agreed upon rule reads as follows: “If a fully vaccinated player whose NFL Player Contract includes a per game roster bonus (e.g., Active List roster bonus, Active/Inactive List roster bonus) subsequently contracts COVID-19 (i.e., a breakthrough case) and misses one or more 2021 regular season games as a result of such COVID-19 diagnosis, such player will be eligible to earn his per game roster bonus for any such regular season game(s).”
Fully vaccinated people rarely get COVID-19, and when they do their symptoms are usually mild. But “breakthrough” cases can happen, and now players who have breakthrough cases won’t have to worry about it hitting them in the paycheck.