Bill Belichick created a bit of stir with his comments regarding COVID vaccinations last week when asked whether that was factor in unvaccinated quarterback Cam Newton being released by the Patriots.
Belichick’s comments that the media’s “implication that vaccination solves every problem is just not really -- I would say that has not been substantiated” even elicited a response from Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer.
During his Monday morning Zoom call with the New England media, Belichick used his opening comments to try to clear up his COVID vaccine comments.
“Just wanted to kind of take a second and clarify an answer to a question that I gave the other day relative to vaccinations,” Belichick said. “No player has been released or kept because of their vaccination status. That’s not part of the equation. My comment relative to vaccinations are, really, the way I feel is that that’s an individual decision for each person to make. As a team, we’re better off if everybody is vaccinated. And that being said, even if everybody was vaccinated, that doesn’t solve all of our problems. As we’ve seen multiple players and head coaches and assistant coaches throughout the league test positive for COVID even after they have been vaccinated. So it’s still incumbent upon us to be vigilant in our, really, daily hygiene and decision making for the health and safety of each of us individually and our team. So, we’ll continue to follow all the league protocols as we always do. But it’s not, that’s not a factor in any player’s release or non-release on the team.”