Category: Games

The US National Football League (NFL) announced new protocols Thursday that make unvaccinated players heavily responsible if games get a COVID cancellation.

The league put out a lengthy memorandum to all 32 teams making it clear that it will not be as forgiving of COVID outbreaks as it was in 2020.

The most eye-catching part of the memo read: “If a game cannot be rescheduled within the current 18-week schedule and is cancelled due to an outbreak among non-vaccinated players on one of the teams, the club with the outbreak will forfeit the contest.”

An NFL team can earn upwards of $7 million in revenue from a single game.

In addition, the NFL said that if a team’s unvaccinated COVID outbreak causes a game to be rescheduled, that team has to pay the travel expenses for the other team, and if rescheduling is not possible, both teams’ players lose out on their weekly salary. The team that caused the cancellation also faces additional fines and penalties from the league.

The NFL is not mandating vaccines among its players, but the new memorandum makes it clear that unvaccinated players risk losing their jobs within their individual teams.

Last year, the league got creative to juggle multiple COVID outbreaks on teams, including rescheduling some games to the middle of the week, whereas the vast majority are played on Sundays. Players were also subject to time away from games in quarantine when they tested positive.

The new protocols allow a vaccinated player, if he tests positive for COVID, to return in two days’ time, assuming he gets two negative COVID tests in a row. An unvaccinated player who gets COVID must sit out 10 days.

The league said in the memo that vaccines are safe and effective and that nearly 75% of all players are in the process of getting vaccinated.

But there have been a few holdouts, including a star wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills, Cole Beasley. Last month, Beasley tweeted his disdain for the NFL’s COVID protocols and suggested he would rather retire than take the vaccine. By late Thursday, he had not responded to the NFL’s new outbreak policy, but another receiver on his team, Stefon Diggs, did.

Apparently applauding the new rules, Diggs wrote simply, “accountability…availability.”

Source: Anadolu Agency

The West African country of Guinea has reversed an earlier decision to pull out of the Olympics and will send a delegation of five athletes to the Tokyo Games.

Minister of Sports Sanoussy Bantama Sow made the announcement Thursday after national and international outcries that followed an earlier declaration that Guinea would not send athletes to Tokyo, blaming the coronavirus and its variants.

“The Minister of State, Minister of Sports has the true pleasure of informing the people of Guinea and the whole sports family, that the government, after obtaining guarantees from the health authorities, agrees to the participation of our athletes in the 32nd Olympics in Tokyo,” the minister said in a statement.

Guinea had announced late Wednesday that it was canceling its participation to protect the health of its athletes.

Only days before the statement, Guinean Olympic committee secretary general Ben Daouda Nassoko had told The Associated Press that funds had been released for the delegation to go to Tokyo.

Fatoumata Yarie Camara, a freestyle wrestler, was one of the five athletes affected by the decision.

She confirmed, through tears of joy, that she would be departing for Tokyo. She had earlier questioned the decision to pull out.

“The question I ask myself is why has Guinea decided not to participate in the Olympic Games on the grounds of coronavirus when the organizing country like Japan hasn’t canceled these Games because of this sickness,” she told the AP. “Why? That’s what I ask myself and I still can’t find an answer.”

The other Guinean athletes are swimmers Mamadou Tahirou Bah and Fatoumata Lamarana Toure, 100-meter runner Aissata Deen Conte and judo competitor Mamadou Samba Bah.

Guinea has participated in the Olympics 11 times but has never won a medal. North Korea is the only country to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics, also citing concerns related to COVID-19.

Source: Voice of America