AP Photo/Adrian Kraus
Buffalo Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley isn’t walking back comments he made about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I don’t want to be any more of a distraction to my team so that’s where I’m leaving it,” he said to the Star-Telegram‘s Stefan Stevenson. “Something needed to be said, so I said it. I don’t regret any of it. That’s how I feel.”
On June 17, Beasley spoke out against the NFL Players Association upon learning of the different protocols for players who have and haven’t been vaccinated:
Cole Beasley @Bease11
This is crazy. Did we vote on this? I stay in the hotel. We still have meetings. We will all be together. Vaccinated players can go out the hotel and bring covid back in to where I am. So what does it matter if I stay in the hotel now? 100 percent immune with vaccination? No. https://t.co/g61WM8zAOh
Cole Beasley @Bease11
The players association is a joke. Call it something different. It’s not for the players. Everyone gives me the 98 percent of people who are vaccinated don’t get covid again. The odds of me getting in the NFL and playing for 10 years are lower than that and I’m here.
Cole Beasley @Bease11
So what are we really talking about? I understand completely why the NFL is doing this. It gives them back the freedom to make the most money as possible again if everyone is vaccinated. But will anyone fight for the players or nah?
Cole Beasley @Bease11
That’s all…I don’t know who I need to talk to but someone has to get it right. That’s why I’m on here. Hopefully the right people will see it and at least think about how all this NFLPA stuff works. It needs to be changed.
He subsequently posted a statement saying he hadn’t received the COVID-19 vaccine and that he “may die of covid, but I’d rather die actually living.” The 32-year-old also claimed “a lot of other NFL players hold my position as well but aren’t in the right place in their careers to be so outspoken.”
Cole Beasley @Bease11
Public Service Announcement pic.twitter.com/XjQicdvnKm
Speaking with reporters at the team’s minicamp, Bills head coach Sean McDermott said he and his staffers were “trying to do our best to educate, build awareness” but that the players had the final say on whether they’d get vaccinated.
“We know, we feel like we know that in our country and around the league where and how things are improving,” he said. “And to me, there’s a direct correlation to people getting vaccinated. Again, I would like to continue to see our team move in that direction.”
McDermott confirmed in May that he is fully vaccinated, as are Bills general manager Brandon Beane and team owners Terry and Kim Pegula.
The Washington Post‘s Mark Maske reported on June 15 that more than half of the NFL’s player pool had received at least one vaccine dose. Half of the league’s 32 teams had at least 50 players from their 90-man roster vaccinated, with three franchises at 70 or more players.