During his 11-year career in the NFL, Chris Long was not only one of the better edge rushers in the league, but he became one of the most respected players in the sport during his time with the then-St. Louis Rams, New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.
The 2018 Walter Payton Man of the Year is fully vaccinated, but knows that not every player in a locker room has the same worldview as he does. So does Long - typically a team leader throughout the course of his career - think he could (and would) be able to talk some unsure teammates into getting the vaccine?
"Maybe someone who doesn't have the information," Long told Jimmy Traina on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast. "And trust me, I can take a swing at it. As a leader, I think a lot of what you have to do is not tell people what to do, it's to convince them what to do. It's to sell something to them. Being a leader is being a salesman.
"And some people might be like 'Well, no, you just gotta tell people what to do.' Well, I've been there in the NFL and I just know that these are a bunch of grown men. And the convictions that I have - whether they're well informed or not well informed - are not any stronger than the convictions of other guys."
Long specifically touched on Buffalo Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley, who has been outspoken about his decision not to get vaccinated, even suggesting he would consider walking away from the NFL before taking a shot.
"And so, I think if you're on the plane and there's an anti-vaxxer dude ... If I'm sitting next to Cole Beasley, I'll debate him. Or I'll tell him to stop whining about it. If you're not gonna get a shot ... when you take a bold stance ... just shut the **** up and be bold, dude."
Long - a two-time Super Bowl Champion - did say that he knows Beasley is far from the only unvaccinated player with skepticism about taking the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine. It is, right or wrong, prevalent enough in the NFL that it figures to be a storyline throughout the 2021 season.
That's at least in part due to the fact that if the NFL's training camp and preseason guidelines are any indication, it will be significantly more comfortable to be a vaccinated player in the league in 2021 than a non-vaccinated one:
Despite this, there will certainly be some players that choose not to get vaccinated. Long says that if you're part of that group, you can't complain about how the league may make your life more difficult in 2021.
"As a leader, and I hadn't thought about this, I think my job is to sell people on the reasons that maybe you should get vaccinated. And also, yeah, the restrictions in the NFL. Like, I cannot believe people are like 'I'm doing this bold thing, this revolutionary thing and I'm not getting vaccinated.' And then they want to complain. Like, I get it, it's a mother****** and the NFL is basically nudging you to do something, but they're also a private business and they can kinda do what they want bro.
"So that's kinda where we are. And if you have an issue with it, get a shot and then you don't have to grab and go in the cafeteria, dude."
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