- Vikings quarterback
Kirk Cousins says he'll do "whatever it takes" to stay on the field. - But he and other quarterbacks have refused to say whether they've been vaccinated against
COVID-19 . - Getting vaccinated gives quarterbacks a competitive advantage, but many seem to be passing it up.
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins says he'll go to great lengths to help his team win, but he hasn't done the one thing that would surely help: get vaccinated.
Cousins recently had to isolate for five days because his team's rookie quarterback, Kellon Mond, tested positive for COVID-19 and the
According to NFL rules, vaccinated players do not have to isolate if they contact somebody who tests positive for COVID-19. But anyone unvaccinated must quarantine for five days. Cousins' absence showed which choice he made.
Speaking with reporters after his return, Cousins said he told his coach that he was willing to do "whatever it takes" to avoid close contact with anyone who gets sick.
"If it means meeting outside under a goal post in January, if that's what it takes to get to the playoffs and be in playoff games and win playoff games, then that's where we're going to meet," Cousins said, adding: "I've even thought about, should I just set up literally plexiglass around where I sit so that this could never happen again?"
But getting a vaccine, of course, would be a far easier way for Cousins to ensure he doesn't miss time - and on that, he was noncommittal.
"The vaccination decision is a very private
-Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) August 5, 2021
It's an illogical stance. Vaccination is the smart thing to do from a public-health perspective, and it gives NFL quarterbacks an advantage by maximizing their chance of staying on the field during the coming season. The Vikings did not respond to Insider's request for comment about Cousins.
Other quarterbacks in the league have already figured out the edge that a high vaccination rate gives their team over others.
"It definitely poses a competitive advantage for higher vaccine rates on the team, just because of close-contact rates and what happens if somebody does, unfortunately, get COVID, what could happen to the rest of the building," Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield told reporters at his youth football camp in July. "It's a competitive advantage, but it's also way more than that. It's about safety, just general health and well-being of human life."
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr made similar comments to The Athletic a week later.
"If you want an easier way of life every day at the facility and a better chance of playing every Sunday, getting the shot makes that chance go higher," Carr said. "Teams will have to forfeit games if they miss one and can't reschedule - and everyone who plays in this league knows that every game matters."
Still, Cousins is far from alone among NFL quarterbacks in his thinking. According to Defector's Kalyn Kahler, just nine starting quarterbacks have gone on the record to say that they are vaccinated so far.
Many others have danced around the question.
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson returned to practice on Monday after getting COVID-19 for the second time in the past year. Even after that, Jackson still was noncommittal about getting vaccinated.
"I just got off the COVID list," Jackson said when asked if he would get the vaccine. "I got to talk to my team about this and see how they feel about it. Keep learning as much as I can about it. We'll go from there."
Jackson missed a game in the 2020 season because of his first case of COVID-19. Now, coming off his second infection, he's still unsure about getting vaccinated? Eighteen months into a pandemic, with hospitalizations once again skyrocketing in states with low vaccination rates, it feels like there shouldn't be much more to "keep learning." And yet here we are.
Several other quarterbacks have used similar language to Cousins throughout the offseason, framing vaccinations as "personal."
When Cam Newton of the New England Patriots declined to reveal his vaccination status, he said it was "too personal to discuss." New York Jets rookie Zach Wilson also said it was a personal matter, as did Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Colts quarterback Carson Wentz.
Meanwhile, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott incorrectly cited HIPAA when asked about his vaccination status, sparking a wave of memes mocking his improper invocation of the law. (Asking about vaccination status does not violate HIPAA rules.)
-Justin (@JustinCentric) July 24, 2021
Of course, this question will cease to be personal soon since NFL rules will make it crystal clear to fans which players are vaccinated. In addition to the differentiated quarantine policies, mask rules apply differently to vaccinated versus unvaccinated players, too.
"I am sure people will be able to tell the first game who is vaccinated and who is not, by who's wearing masks and who's not," Carr told The Athletic.
If we're all going to know within a few weeks, why bother with this song and dance? And how can these players continue to tell reporters and fans how committed they are to their teams if the most important players won't make clear that they've taken the easiest step available to them to ensure they'll stay on the field?
This is all, of course, not to mention the moral questions at play here. Quarterbacks are the leaders of their teams and stars in their hometowns. Many have an influence on a national level. With the Delta variant fueling yet another wave of cases, quarterbacks could do a significant service to the public by getting in front of a camera and encouraging people to get vaccinated. Credit is owed to the Falcons' Matt Ryan and Seahawks' Russell Wilson for doing so already.
For quarterbacks who won't get vaccinated and say so publicly, statements about doing whatever it takes to win are empty platitudes. The elaborate lengths that Cousins described - gathering outside in the winter, stuffing himself inside a plexiglass bubble - would be unnecessary if he simply got the jab.
Kirk Cousins says he'll do anything to win, but he won't do that.