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Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane wants his team to have something resembling a “normal” season in 2020-21, and he's willing to cut unvaccinated players in order to make that happen.
During an appearance on One Bills Live, Beane provided insight into some of the league's expected guidelines for vaccinated players, compared to those who haven't received their COVID-19 shot. Beane said that vaccinated players will only have to test once per week, and teams will be able to hold in-person meetings with no restrictions once “x number of percent of players” are vaccinated.
“Yeah, I would, because it’d be an advantage,” Beane said, when asked if he would cut a player if he was one short of the threshold. “These meetings were not as productive as before because you guys saw in the field house, we had three and four meetings going on. And sometimes you’re talking over each other, but it was the only way to pull it off and be socially distanced. It would be an advantage to cut a player and fall under that umbrella.”
NFL organizations can't mandate that their employees get vaccinated, but Beane does lay out a fairly persuasive incentive for Bills players to get the shot.
“I think there’s gonna be some incentives to, if you have X number of percent of your players and staff vaccinated, you can live normal. Let’s just call it, back to the old days,” he said. “If you don’t than it’s going to look more like it did last year. Social distant meetings … mask in the building, maybe even mask on the sideline. A lot of that is still to be determined, but I hope if those are the rules we’ll be able to get enough people vaccinated and not have to deal with all the headaches.”
Unvaccinated players are still required to get a COVID-19 test each day upon arrival at the team facility.
Last month, Bills QB Josh Allen said on Kyle Brandt's “10 Questions” podcast that he was still unsure about getting the vaccine.
