Bills' Cole Beasley Takes Issue With Michael Irvin's Stance on Vaccinations
Cole Beasley has been largely silent on Twitter for the last month or so.
But the Buffalo Bills' veteran wide receiver felt compelled to respond to former Dallas Cowboys star Michael Irvin's contention that players who didn't get vaccinated against COVID-19 don't want to win as badly as those who did.
Beasley, of course, is at the forefront of the crusade against vaccinations, and he appears to have plenty of support in a locker room that could eventually become fractured over this issue if the NFL follows through on plans to treat teams differently who reach the 85% vaccination threshold and the Bills don't wind up among them.
Quarterback Josh Allen and safety Jordan Poyer are among the Bills who have expressed reservations about the vaccines.
According to Irvin, a Hall-of-Famer who finished a his career with nearly 12,000 receiving yards, players who choose not to get vaccinated aren't totally committed to winning.
Beasley, not surprisingly, disagrees.
"You can be vaccinated and not do all the right things football wise to be at your best," he Tweeted. "All it means is players are gonna be out there with covid and we won’t know cause they only get tested once a week so the NFL can make their money."
Teams who have reached the 85% threshold will essentially be able to operate in pre-pandemic conditions. Teams that fall below will be hit with restrictions similar to those in place for all teams last year, placing them at a competitive disadvantage.
Irvin, according to ESPN, is upset that the Cowboys have not reached the threshold.
"Yeah, and it should upset them," Irvin said. "It should upset them. Dude, you're not thinking right. You're not thinking right. Whatever you got, I don't give a damn. ... Nothing else can be more important.
"You're not going to get this [winning a Super Bowl] easily. Nothing else could be more important. ... Jimmy [Johnson] made that abundantly clear [during Irvin's playing career]. Nothing else is more important. And not being one of the [teams] says there's other things to a great number of people on this team that are more important than winning championships, and that makes me worried."
Irvin went on to point out that missing time in the NFL is not like most other sports, especially basketball.
"Somebody in that damn locker room [should say], 'Hey man, we're going to have a chance, are you vaccinated?'" Irvin said. "Let's go through this because this could be a two-week healthy dude missing games, and in this league, this ain't the NBA. In this league that could be it for you. The right person misses two weeks, that's it. Your ass is out."
The Bills and most other NFL teams start training camp on or around July 27. It's not clear if the Bills are one of the 13 believed to have reached the threshold.
Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
