Minnesota Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson was brought in to take over as a starting cornerback and be a leader.
Peterson recognizes this and has been adamant about giving the Vikings the best possible chance of winning each Sunday. He has maintained his support of vaccinations as the best measure to being available due to the NFL’s strict NFL COVID-19 protocols that were updated this offseason.
On the All Things Covered podcast, Peterson lamented his belief that a vaccinated team has the best chance of winning — just days after three Vikings quarterbacks, including Kirk Cousins, were forced to isolate at least five days of team activities.
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‘I’m Too Important to This Team to Not Get Vaccinated’
Peterson speaking on vaccinations came at an uncanny time when Minnesota was made an example of by the rest of the NFL.
The Vikings have the lowest vaccination rate of any team in the NFL at 70% as of last Aug. 3, per the Washington Post. Minnesota has a competitive disadvantage against any team in the league, given 90% of the league’s players have received at least one dose.
If any team is going to be affected, either by the virus or the strict protocols in place, it will likely be the team with the lowest vaccination rate.
Peterson spoke his piece on the matter, arguing that vaccines are the best measure to being on the field on Sundays:
Obviously we don’t want to have anybody go down with COVID. It’s better to have it now, hopefully it doesn’t happen again throughout the season. But at the same time, like I always said, we need all hands on deck.
I know it’s personal preference, but if you’re trying to win a championship, I want to put myself in the best position possible. Period. Because at the end of the day, we’ve got something going here. I don’t want to be — obviously you want to build depth, but you have a greater chance at winning with your starters on the field. I feel that if we’re healthy, we’re going to compete each and every Sunday. It’s every player’s personal preference if they want to get the vaccine or not, but me, I feel like I’m too important to this team not to get vaccinated, not miss an important game and now we possibly lose that game and that could be the game that we needed to get into the playoffs.
I think what the biggest problem is, being around the guys, I think the NFLPA is not doing a great job of educating us.
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How Protocols Could Haunt the Vikings
Minnesota got a taste of how the NFL’s guidelines will be after Kellen Mond tested positive for COVID-19. Cousins, Nate Stanley and Jake Browning were all in the same meeting room as Mond the day before his positive test.
The room was too small to respect safe social distancing, which led to Cousins and Stanley being deemed as “high-risk” close contacts and required to isolate for a minimum of five days.
Browning, who is vaccinated, was not subject to the same protocols and took every quarterback rep last Saturday when the other three unvaccinated quarterbacks were forced to isolate. The NFL has incentivized players to get vaccinated by allowing them to forgo harsher rules on social distancing, quarantine requirements, travel restrictions and mask wearing than a season ago.
Cousins said he produced six negative tests before returning to practice on Thursday. He was still forced to sit out, missing four practices for the first time in his career due to the harsher protocols unvaccinated players face.
Minnesota changed the quarterbacks meeting room to avoid another incident, however, much more precautions will need to be taken to accommodate unvaccinated players.
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