Panthers QB Sam Darnold to be Fully Vaccinated by End of July
Over the last month, the Panthers have become one of the NFL's most highly vaccinated teams. However, the long list of those vaccinated did not originally include starting quarterback Sam Darnold.
During OTAs, Darnold told reporters that he had not received the vaccine for COVID-19 and that he was still doing his research on it.
"I've still got to think about all of those certain things that go into it," Darnold stated. "Again, it's everyone's choice whether they want to get vaccinated or not. That's really all I got on it, I don't want to go into detail but yeah, I haven't been vaccinated yet. For me, I'm just staying by myself right now. I don't have a family or anything like that. There's a ton of different things that go into it and I'm going to evaluate that on my own and make the best decision that I feel like is the best for myself."
Once Darnold made those comments, it sparked some controversy and had some folks wondering if he would eventually become vaccinated or not. As Panthers head coach Matt Rhule stated, having the majority of players and coaches vaccinated could give a team an advantage as it would avoid any COVID breakouts thus meaning everyone is available to play.
“I don’t tell anybody ‘Do it.’ I’ve told our team this is better for our team if we’re vaccinated,” Rhule said following day two of minicamp. "We’ve certainly given our players a lot of information. We certainly presented it like ‘Hey, this is what we’d like the team to do.’ But at the same time, it’s a personal decision for each guy.”
Reports coming out of training camp are that Darnold received his first shot of the vaccine nearly a month after he told reporters that he was still weighing his options and will become fully vaccinated on July 30th.
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