Now that the dust has begun to settle on the negotiations that dramatically minimized COVID protocols in order to keep everyone’s financial position maximized, there’s a realization that, for the rest of the year, the virus will get inside the facilities and migrate through the building, at will.
The testing changes apply not only to players but also to Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 individuals. Thus, unless someone has symptoms or is deemed a “high risk vaccinated contact,” teams will employ only “strategic, targeted spot testing.”
The new protocol hinges largely on those who “report” symptoms. As one person with knowlege of how the NFL sausage gets made explained it, players and coaches and others likely will conceal symptoms, if they can. They won’t want to miss high-stakes games. As long as they aren’t objectively under the weather, they’ll be able to enter the building.
And then to spread the virus. Along with the vaccinated, asymptomatic indiviuals who will be spreading the virus, too.
Basically, the owners and the players have opted to let the virus wash through the facilities. With so many players currently testing positive but also being perfectly fine, a form-over-substance protocol that arguably was driven more by P.R. and politics yielded to pragmatism. The 2021 protocol was fine and dandy, until it got in the way of dollars and cents.
