ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Perhaps it’s too soon for the Buffalo Bills or their fans to panic, but you can’t blame them for feeling more than a bit uncomfortable about the potential threat COVID-19 poses to all of those giddy expectations for the 2021 season.
Just as he did during offseason workouts, Sean McDermott continues to do his best to sound an alarm for the players on his team who choose to be unvaccinated.
While talking with reporters Thursday, the coach got to the heart of the matter as it applies to the Bills’ chances for success.
“There’s people’s livelihoods at stake in terms of people’s jobs,” McDermott said. “Being able to count on people is important, so when you’re going through a week – if this were a real week – and having the players out that we’ve had, that makes it harder to win games that way.”
Though this isn’t a “real week,” with the Bills preparing for their third and final game of the preseason, the issue of players refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is a real problem with real implications.
On Tuesday, four unvaccinated members of the roster – receivers Cole Beasley and Gabriel Davis, and defensive tackles Star Lotulelei and Vernon Butler – entered five days of self-isolation because they were in contact with a vaccinated Bills athletic trainer who tested positive for COVID-19. Their status for Saturday’s game is uncertain.
Another unvaccinated receiver, Isaiah McKenzie, posted a copy of a letter he received from the league informing him he was being fined $14,650 for his failure to wear a mask inside the team facility. That prompted Beasley to respond by revealing that he too drew the same fine for the same reason.
The league says it has issued such fines to 25 players, and it has sent warning letters to 120. The fact two of the players who have been fined play the same position for the Bills should raise eyebrows. So should the fact the Bills, with about 80% of their players vaccinated, rank in the lower portion of the NFL.
It rightfully is raising the ire of McDermott, who sounds as if he is at wits' end in trying to convey the message to the players that they all should get vaccines, even though it isn’t something the league or the Bills can force them to do. He acknowledged his advocacy for COVID-19 vaccinations occupies so much time that “there’s not much room in our day left to do anything else other than educate on that and football.”
Let that sink in for a moment.
Rather than devoting full days to football education, which is vital to winning, the head coach actually needs to take large chunks of the schedule to implore players to do what seems pretty obvious to the vast majority of others – including their teammates.
One would assume McDermott, who along with General Manager Brandon Beane has made enough right moves to earn contract extensions and the highest league-wide respect for the club they’ve built, would have an easier time convincing their own players that getting vaccinated is the right thing to do.
For their own safety. For the safety of loved ones. For the safety of the community. And, oh by the way, for the enhancement of their and their teammates’ availability to help the Bills make a serious run at a Super Bowl crown.
McDermott has tried to walk the line of respecting individual choices, especially as they pertain to matters of health. However, seeing a significant cluster of key players deciding that the risk of contracting (and spreading) the virus outweighs all other considerations, including what’s good for team that pays them handsomely to do a job, has to be both infuriating and mind-numbing.
“It’s tough,” McDermott said. “It’s frustrating, it’s challenging, however you want to say it. But I can’t make the decision for them.”
So, he keeps pounding the message, directed at about 20% of his players, that it’s a good idea to be vaccinated.
Somewhere in there, you have to wonder whether McDermott also asks them to “trust the process.” It seems as if that mantra, a staple of his coaching since his arrival in 2017, has served the Bills exceptionally well so far.