Responding to an announcement made by the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) COVID Taskforce about updating safety protocols to align with new guidance from the Centers of Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), Graham said he was “confused” why the league’s coronavirus rules were changing after originally penalizing those who refuse to get vaccinated.
“I’ve done everything I’ve been asked and now Feel like I’m being punished,” Graham tweeted. “If I miss a test that your proposing everyday I’ll be fined a max 150k! How does this make sense. How’s the punishment 100x worse than last year and I’m vaccinated now?”
In a memo released this week, the NFLPA recommended that all vaccinated staff and players be required to undergo PCR testing every day at team facilities “to detect positive cases quickly and prevent the spread of the virus.”
According to the memo, 65 players and staff members have tested positive. Among those, 32 were vaccinated.
“These ‘breakthrough’ cases are consistent with what our COVID Taskforce and the CDC have learned about the Delta variant in recent weeks,” the NFLPA said.
“In light of this new information as well as updated guidance by the CDC—and in order to successfully complete another season and keep everyone safe—we will be approaching the NFL to recommend increasing the frequency of testing for vaccinated staff and players,” the union added.
Last month, the NFL issued a memo that outlining drastic penalties for teams with unvaccinated personnel.
If an unvaccinated player or staff member is found to have caused an outbreak that causes a schedule change, the team would be held financially responsible for the other club’s expenses. If the game cannot be rescheduled, the team with the outbreak would be forced to forfeit.
“For me, it’s one of these things where, last year, I understand last year and what was happening last year,” Graham told reporters after practice on Thursday. “We all made a commitment to try to make this season happen, like that season happened, to try to make a run and win the Super Bowl. I understood what that was about. You know there wasn’t a vaccine available. There was a lot less known about it, so we had to take those measures to do that.”
“I thought we also had a game plan going into this season, and now we’re kind of redacting and retracting on that,” the Chicago Bears tight end added. “So it’s a bit frustrating for myself, who went out and got the vaccine just so I could, you know, do the same thing and have another successful healthy season. That’s all I’m going to say about that.”
Newsweek reached out to the NFLPA for comment but did not hear back before publication.
