BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Cleveland Browns center and NFLPA president JC Tretter is not happy with the NFL over its attempts to single out unvaccinated players.
Tretter is upset that the league is trying embarrass unvaccinated players by permitting teams to institute a wristband policy.
“It’s just kind of a nonsensical idea,” Tretter said Thursday. “They say they need a differentiator between unvaccinated and vaccinated players. We already have a differentiator – the unvaccinated players need to wear masks.
No other sports leagues use any sort of scarlet marking or helmet decal or wristband because they know it’s not necessary. And the teams know who’s vaccinated and who’s not vaccinated.
“So, what it really comes down to is the NFL wanted to put a policy in place to try to shame unvaccinated players publicly about their status and make that know to everybody on the field, and that shouldn’t be the case because it’s unnecessary and we all know who’s vaccinate and who’s not and it doesn’t need to be a scarlet marking on people’s helmets or wrists.”
The Browns decided as an organization not to use wristbands or a helmet sticker to identify unvaccinated players.
“It’s on our lanyards when you’re in the building,” Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “As you know, we’re not dividing the team over this issue. And I’ve been pretty clear with the team. I think you guys know how I feel about it.”
Tretter appreciates the Browns’ decision not to use additional identifiers in the wake of a memo that was sent by the league office to the 32 teams and he’s confident they’ll get through the season just fine without them.
“The protocols got us through last year,” Tretter said. “People talk about increased likelihood if you're not vaccinated of shutting down a season or canceling a game like that memo talked about, but what we saw last year is when you follow the protocols and do the right things, we can have a season and not need to postpone games or do anything like that. We believe the vaccine is safe and effective, and if you have that, you have a little different level of protocols and what you need to do, and we're still working on those. Those are going to be a continued moving target as we learn more about the delta variant. Just like last year. Last year, where we started in training camp with our protocols and where we ended were two completely different places, and to expect anything different than that would be wrong.
We're going to continue to follow the science, continue to make sure we're doing everything in the best interest of keeping as many people healthy, limiting transmission and then making sure we can play all the games and get everybody paid.”
Tretter stressed the two sides will need to work together if they're to complete another season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Last year, it wasn't perfect, but we worked well together because we needed to and because we needed everybody to buy in and do the right things in order to get through a season,” Tretter said. “This year, this is not going to be easy again. We're going to need to really rely on a lot of things we did last year and that continues with meeting the protocols but also the way we worked together.
“Having sides releasing things that they know are going to drum up reactions from players, that's only going to cause more confusion on how things are going to work this year, that doesn't help and it doesn't make it easier and, again, we're both relying on each other of doing this and getting through the season. We don't want to lose checks, we want to keep people healthy, they don't want to lose revenue and they want to keep people healthy, so we have the same goals, it's about executing that.”
Unvaccinated players must wear masks and test daily. Tretter believes that unvaccinated players need to be tested more frequently than every 14 days, which is the current protocol for them.
“What we don’t want is with the delta variant that’s becoming more and more prevalent, I think the CDC director has touched on it now where they’re trying to figure out whether a vaccinated individual can spread the virus, especially the delta variant,” Tretter said. “If that’s the case and we’re having one test every 14 days of vaccinated individuals, that person becomes positive day 2 after the test, that person could be in the building potentially shedding the virus for 13 days. That sets us up for failure. So what we’re looking for is trying to figure out the best cadence for that and just making sure we keep people … again, if we can limit transmission, we can complete the season. So we need to look at every avenue possible to limit transmission and be able to move through the season.”
Tretter understands the science and study of COVID-19 and the variants – now Delta – is ever evolving and the expectation is that, like last year, the protocols will also continue to evolve.
“We’re going to continue following what we’ve done and continuing to rely on the experts we have,” Tretter said. “It wasn’t perfect but we found a lot of success last year, and we need to continue to follow the same blueprint.”
