Washington Football: Latest vaccine update comes with huge sigh of relief

The Washington Football Team entered their training camp as one of the teams with the least number of their players vaccinated. This caused concern not only throughout the fanbase, but on the coaching staff as well.

In his first press conference as the team opened camp in Richmond, head coach Ron Rivera voiced his frustration with the teams’ low vaccination rate. It frustrated Rivera both at a personal level, as he is immune-compromised, and at a competitive level.

Being an unvaccinated player vs being vaccinated presents a severe disadvantage. An unvaccinated player is subject to contact tracing, an automatic five days missed, and they get an automatic 10-day “suspension” with a positive.

A vaccinated player does not get contact traced and must produce two negative tests within a 24-hour time frame. While getting the vaccine won’t one-hundred percent guarantee a player does not test positive for the virus, it takes their chances of missing time drastically down.

Furthermore, a team below the 85% threshold has to follow different protocols than the other teams. Again, another example of a competitive disadvantage. And Washington felt the brunt of that disadvantage in their first week of camp. Seven players, including four starters, went to the COVID-19 list.

And not all were for positive tests.

However, on their first off day, they were able to get a number of players to take their first dose of the vaccine. And just after that, Washington passed the all-important 85% threshold.

Washington still has some work to do, but this was a huge step.

The importance of passing the 85% threshold

This may seem unimportant to some. Others may be annoyed that this is still a talking point. But,  like it is for every team in the NFL, this is a huge deal.

Washington passing the 85% threshold allows them to convene all in one locker room, Rivera hopes. They were previously operating on a two locker room basis as they were in 2020. This should help produce a higher level of synergy on the team.

Furthermore, this presents that a large number of the team cannot be put onto the COVID-19 list unless they test positive for the virus. For example, if a player tests positive and the rest of his position group is vaccinated, that position group will most likely not miss time.

This takes the chances of an outbreak occurring significantly down.

The 85% vaccination rate for the Washington Football Team is still towards the bottom of the league. And it can be expected to decrease once they cut down to the final fifty-three, as it is safe to bet most of the unvaccinated players are players that have secure roster spots.

Having said that, this is still a very encouraging development. Now, the storylines will not be as much about and they can shift to the play on the field.

As the old saying goes, “it is better late than never.” Now Washington is quickly getting their players vaccinated. Hopefully, this points toward minimal problems with the virus for the Washington Football Team in 2021.