Bills receiver Cole Beasley, who became in the preseason the poster child for the anti-vaccination movement in the NFL, finally has tested positive, amid the ongoing Omicron outbreak. As he did before the season, he has taken to social media to sound off.
“Just to be clear Covid is not keeping me out of this game,” Beasley said on Instagram. “The rules are. Vaxxed players are playing with Covid every week now because they don’t test. One of my vaxxed teammates is in the hospital missing games. I’m sure he didn’t get this same energy. Thank you for those who support. Everyone else, if you don’t get what’s happening then there is nothing anybody can do for you.”
What’s happening is that the NFL and the NFL Players Association continue to strongly encourage players to get vaccinated and boosted. A whopping 96 percent of all players have chosen to do so. Beasley is among the minority. (To his credit, he owned his status and didn’t get a fake vaccination card.)
What’s also happening is that the league and the union have given up, when it comes to spotting the virus in vaccinated players who don’t have symptoms. (Frankly, that’s all the more reason to get vaccinated.)
His comment about a vaccinated player in the hospital missing games is confusing. Some say it’s offensive lineman Jon Feliciano, who said that he spent some time in the emergency room on Sunday. Still, that’s a far cry from being “in the hospital missing games.”
Beasley doesn’t like the rules. He never has. But the rules, as agreed by the league and the union, continue to be the rules. Under the rules, Beasley will miss the most important game of the year.
The good news for Beasley is that, once he returns, he’ll be immune to testing or a five-day absence for “close contact” with an infected player for 90 days. Which will take him through the end of the season.
The bad news for the Bills is that, without Beasley on Sunday at New England, the season could end as of Week 18.