Dallas Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliot is the latest player to react to the league's new vaccine policy, which has some NFL players like DeAndre Hopkins shaking their heads. The league memo released on Thursday basically states that if a certain team has a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players in the upcoming 2021 NFL season and a game is canceled, that team will have to forfeit that game and will be tagged as a loss. In addition, a forfeiture will also result in both affected teams' not getting their salary for that game week, which was more than enough reason for Elliot to get jabbed.
“Um, you said game checks?” Elliot asked on Thursday during the press conference of Dallas' training camp (via dallascowboys.com).
For Zeke, it's as basic as that. As much as it's hard to simply force everyone to get vaccinated with respect to each individual's choices, Elliot's stand suggests that he understands that personal decisions like getting vaccinated affect way more than just themselves.
“I got the vaccine just because I wanted to put myself in the best situation to be out there for my team, week in and week out,” he added.
At the end of the day, the Cowboys' three-time Pro Bowler emphasized that getting vaccinated is a personal choice and he knows that different people in and out of the league will have their own subjective views on the matter.
“I think that's kind of a touchy subject. You can't really tell someone what to do with their body,” he said. “I grew up in a family where we didn't get vaccines, so it's kind of hard to tell someone who, their whole life their mom and dad tell them not to get vaccines, to go get vaccinated.”
The NFL is trying to incentivize vaccinations, but there will continue to be some pushback from certain players.
Follow Us
Subscribe