The NFL has about 7,000 players, coaches and staff members across the league, and with the 2021 season coming to an end at Super Bowl LVI on Sunday, the league is very pleased with the number out of those 7,000 who have had to be hospitalized due to COVID-19: One.
Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer, said today that the NFL had just one hospitalization out of 7,000 players, coaches and staff.
The NFL did not identify that one person who was hospitalized, but it was apparently Vikings offensive lineman Dakota Dozier, who spent one night in the hospital in November. He recovered and returned to the field later in the season.
Sills noted that 95 percent of NFL players are vaccinated and close to 100 percent of coaches and staff are vaccinated.
“We clearly saw beneficial effects from the vaccine,” Sills said. “We consistently saw higher rates of COVID among the unvaccinated than we did with vaccinated individuals.”