https://twitter.com/colts/status/147...753052675?s=21

And the party continues

Assuming those guys are vaxxed, they’re not in danger of missing the game Sunday, correct? It’s the unvaccinated that are the concern.

o


Actions speak louder than words. Someone can claim to be a "team player" in every press conference in which they participate in, but their actions will bear out whether or not they really are team-first players ...... and a glaring example that exhibits a player's attitude toward his team's goals is his choice to be (or not be) vaccinated.

o

We may not win this week and that’s a tough one for the last home game of the year, but Frank will find a way to keep the team inspired and with a win in Jack-off-ville we should be riding high into the playoffs…I hope.

What? False equivalence? First? Anyhow, not that I expect any of this to be read, but...

Ok, the main issue I have with the 10-day rule and the NFL's covid protocols in general is the inconsistency. For example, starting today NFL personnel are not considered fully vaccinated (and thus cannot keep their positions) unless they have booster shots. NFL players on the other hand are still considered fully vaccinated like before and are only encouraged to get boosted.

Well, which is it? We just have two definitions of "fully vaccinated" now?

As for the 10-day rule itself... So 10 days is the line they've drawn that says after this point, we're not too worried about you spreading the virus. That's for vaccinated and unvaccinated according to CDC. It's not for an individual's well-being, it's to mitigate the spread. Everyone spreads this, as we've seen in the NFL.

Especially Omicron. Why do you think they went 14 weeks smooth and then all of a sudden hell breaks loose? A week ago, NFL Chief Medical Officer said they had guys testing positive who were fully vaccinated AND boosted AND had already recovered from covid. The Holy Trinity of protection and guys still catch it and spread it.

But despite all that... vaccinated players don't really test anymore unless they're symptomatic, which is self-reported, so we've got a bunch of asymptomatic positives spreading this thing like crazy. And if they do test positive or are symptomatic, they're able to come back sooner via negative rapid tests OR apparently now they're actually going to check their Cycle Threshold values to see how much covid they have and if it's enough to be contagious. All of a sudden nuance is a thing.

Meanwhile the you-know-who's are still tested every single day and if they're positive... Fuck it. Gone. You weren't a good boy so no options.

Glow and Smith are vaxed. Glow should be back for the next game.

Problem is the Raiders have the best pass rush pressure rate in the NFL and blitz the least in the league. So 8 defenders are dropping back.

If the NFL wants to play this dumbass game then that’s on them; None of this is necessary. They should have just mandated the vax. I don’t agree with it, but logically that is what should have been done.

Maybe next season the policies will be more clear/logical.

Why are NFL personnel and NFL players treated differently? Because of the NFL players union. Remember, the protocols in place for the players were negotiated between the players union and the NFL. That agreement doesn’t affect coaches and other NFL personnel. There are inconsistencies because a segment of the country acts like little bitches whining about any inconvenience they may experience, and in this case the power of collective bargaining gave them better negotiating power.

Same with the treatment of vaccinated and unvaccinated players. Without incentive to get vaccinated what do you think the vaccination rate in the NFL would be? So the players and NFL negotiated and agreed to less restrictions on vaccinated players. It’s not that damn hard to understand. People can bitch about it all they want, but that’s what the NFL AND the players agreed to. And yet people still whine that it’s unfair to the poor selfish assholes who refuse to do their part. Does it all make logical or “scientific” sense? No. But almost anyone who whines about it would whine about the restrictions that would makes sense anyway.

Players Union

I would guess the players union would vote against anything the league wants to do next year that limits their availability for games. They all see how some teams have been wrecked this year by this, and just want to play the game they all love without the side show.

I know this is completely impractical but the possibility of me of me buying tickets in the near future it’s going to be dependent upon whether or not the team can be healthy during the season. Until the NFL or the Indianapolis Colts get their shit together about taking a vaccine that would save the lives of the players and their families and the people around them, I think I’m gonna be watching on the TV

My bad, so I guess Smith is not vaxed. So he will definitely be out for the raiders game.

CDC has reduced the isolation period from 10 to 5 days For asymptomatic Still getting the details now

No shit it's the NFLPA. They were testing until it started looking bad, then they wanted less testing. And the NFL agreed. So are these guys actually all that worried about the spread? Doesn't seem like it to me. Seems to me that they want to appear to be concerned.

And if they didn't negotiate for what they have now, then what? Do you see how many guys around the league are going on the list anyway?

https://www.sharpfootballanalysis.co...-nfl-policies/

Go down the list and look at all the late November and December cases. A big part of all of this could be that they know it's inevitable. Everyone is going to catch this motherfucker.

I'm curious what their move is when it's Colts-Cardinals level of product across the whole league.

You're certainly welcome to use your own risk assessment to guide the support of the team in person. Regarding the 2nd part, and speaking as someone who got my booster Friday, this is a ridiculously stupid take. Had Xmas eve dinner with the head of the ICU at our big hospital and they're considering having their positive asymptomatic workers come back to work. He also said at my age (52, healthy) didn't really need the booster to combat the Chron variant, not that the vaccines inhibit transmission on anyway.

Are you in Indiana Drewtone?

I guess I’m missing your point. It’s seems you are just yelling into the wind that Covid sucks and is affecting football (along with everything else). Are you suggesting the answer is more testing and more strict enforcement? Then you need agreement between the NFLPA and the NFL. Are you suggesting they should throw out all precautions and let players play with it? That’s irresponsible and hugely bad publicity.

I’m involved in making decisions about our response at my work and I can tell you that no matter what you do people are going to be pissed and say how stupid everything is. We have people in the hospital and people who believe it all fake and made up. WTF do you do where someone isn’t pissed off and complaining? NFL players themselves are fairly low risk, although not without any risk. The best way for the NFL to protect themselves and their investment was to incentivize vaccines. Even lower chance of major health issue and it would play well image wise. Lower testing for vaccinated players both incentivizes vaccination and, as you point out, lowers the number of players testing positive and missing games. Win, win. Who loses? The selfish unvaccinated guys. As they’ll quickly point out - their choice. The other losers are the fans of teams with that culture.

The ultimate answer for the players was to understand the rules and make sure they maximize both their protection and availability. The Colts did that to a lower degree than most teams and it may very well bite them. That’s not on the NFL, that’s on players putting Facebook over reality. And it sucks for Colts fans. But that was the players choice. I feel sorry for guys like Buckner. There are only so many years you truly have a chance at a SB. Leonard, Nelson, Wentz etc may waste one.

Life isn't fair. To anyone. Just accept it.

Since we have so many "Drs" on here. I have a scenario for you to read through and give your answers to the questions.

A healthy middle aged woman gets covid and within days her husband also very healthy also gets covid. For a few days symptoms were not too bad. Just a mild cough runny nose and some fatigue. But after 2 days the husband takes a real turn and has a fever, sever chills (sever flu symptoms) to which he said were the worst of his life. The wife meanwhile still has the same symptoms.
After another rough day for the husband. He returns to mostly normal except for slight runny nose and a slight cough. They did not quarantine from each other at any point.

So both are able to catch the virus, and transmit the virus and one with harsh symptoms one with very lite symptoms

This is a real couple and real circumstances

So the question I would like you to answer.

1. Are either of these two people vaccinated?

As a practicing physician for 40 years, recently retired, that isn't how it works. Any single individual may have an easy course or a difficult one regardless of vaccination status. Giving the vaccine to a large population, less of those vaccinated will get sick or die, but it doesn't mean that nobody who is vaccinated will get sick or die. Statistics cannot tell you how any individual will respond, it will tell you how a population will respond.

So you cannot tell if either are vaccinated correct?

Well, then you are missing my point. Because it annoys me to no end how many people do that. Very few sports fans (or people in general) seem to know or care to know much about this stuff.

I agree with you that this is an image thing for the NFL. Goddamn do I agree with that. So much so that if the tests are not reflecting what we're selling, we'll just stop testing. It's like saying we'll decriminalize these crimes so that our city will have less crime. It's asinine.

Almost nobody complaining about players on covid lists gives a single fuck about that player's well-being or spreading the virus. They just want Darius Leonard making plays for the Colts. That's where the "selfish" pejorative comes from. It's not because he's spreading a virus. Nobody cares. It's because the only thing that matters is we don't want our team playing with a backup linebacker.

You implied as much saying it's a win-win coercing players into taking the vaccine because they won't be tested as much. That doesn't scream to me that your main interest is to keep covid out of the building.

bingo!!

You can go back to my post history at the beginning of the season and see my main issue with our players was their selfishness within their communities - especially Leonard. However I’m responding to your rant about the NFL as it appeared to be competition related so I kept it at that. I’ll be clear - we have a selfish group of players that have made the calculation that since they statistically aren’t likely to die from Covid they don’t give a fuck about anything else. Leonard had been one of my favorite players, but I will never own a Leonard jersey because as far as I’m concerned he’s a selfish asshole who is doing damage to his community. I’ll never own a Wentz or Nelson jersey either.

As far as the NFL, the single best thing they could do to protect players lives is to push vaccinations. The single best thing they could do to for their communities was to push vaccinations. The single best thing they could do to protect their image is push vaccinations. What did they do? Pushed vaccinations. It doesn’t matter which one they did it for, but it seems pretty obvious to me they did the single best thing they could do.

You seem to want to complain and still haven’t suggested what they should be doing. More? Less? Or do you just want to bitch and moan like 1/3 of the population? Be clear - what should they have done?

Two guys wreck their cars. One walks away from his wreck with no injury, the other dies in his. Can you definitively tell me if they were wearing seatbelts?

This.

BS. I don't want Jackasses like Leonard spreading disinformation and discouraging others from being vaccinated. Like it or not they are role models. I work in healthcare in a role very much impacted by the pandemic and my everyday life has been impacted for going on two years because idiots won't get the poke or do the bare minimum to help reduce the spread. I dread every day going to work to deal with the shit show it has become. So fuck you and fuck all the morons who won't do a simple thing to help their community.

Nope Your turn

Reading all this is entertaining to say the least

As has already been said, individually - nope. Now show me a random sampling of 10,000 of each group and I can pick out the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. Just as you likely could with seatbelts.

1st. You're accusing him of not being vaccinated. Are you assuming that?

And I think you are missing his point. As most of you on here are. Or maybe I'm wrong.

What he is saying is that the NFL doesn't give a rats ass if someone is vaccinated. They are putting on a show That is whey the rules keep changing. They are more concerned with their TV contracts than the idea of not spreading the virus

Correct me if I'm wrong Chaos

Settle down. I'm making a point. I'll get there soon enough. Would like to hear more from others

He was asked to clarify his take and he simply added another group to complain about - the fans. He didn’t clarify if he thought the rules were too strict or too loose. He simply complained. As has been pointed out, the rules were designed to encourage vaccinations AND get agreement with the NFLPA. The idea the NFL cares about their billion dollar contracts is not exactly a hot take or enlightening in anyway. Individual players are fairly low risk due to their demographic. And yes, any individual player is also largely disposable to the NFL anyway. That is and has been obvious for all kinds of issues over the years. It also is in no way unique to the NFL. So what is the point of the rant? The NFL did the single biggest thing they could do for their players, their business, and their communities. The vaccination rate of NFL players is much higher than the general population. That wasn’t due to anything other than NFL policy. So I’ll ask again - what the hell is the complaint?

I get everything you are saying. I do.

So the CDC just lowered the isolation period to 5 days from 10. The NFL is suppose to jump on that as of tomorrow.

Here is the tricky part. It says only 5 days isolation and then 5 days of wearing a mask. So how will this work for the NFL? NBA? etc. Are the players going to wear a mask for 5 days after isolation OR are they just going to ignore that part and get away without wearing it so we have players on the field?

You can be pissed that the unvaccinated Colt players are losing a competitive advantage and at the same time think they are irresponsible towards their community for not being vaccinated. I agree with the first statement (I'm not sure how you can not think it is a competitive disadvantage not to be vaccinated) but am not willing to make that judgement on players like Leonard. I'm not sure why he didn't get vaccinated and it isn't any of my business as long as he or others are willing to take the consequences.

No, your take is wrong. I accused them of nothing, they accused me of only caring about the fucking games.

OldColt/Butter I appreciate your service to the medical field. FYI. I am not a DR and have no background myself in the field. My wife however does. She overseas 17 hospital emergency rooms throughout the midwest for a medical group that has hundreds of hospitals. She coordinates with 150+ DRs on a daily basis. Sits in on the meetings etc. and hears all of the discussion about COVID and what is happening now in the past and what to expect going forward.

Anyway, Back to the story of the couple

There is no way for anyone to tell if this couple is vaccinated or not Whether as individuals or as a couple.

The reason is because they were both infected. One caught it from the other so both can pass the virus and they can get very sick or be mild. Any of those things can happen with a vaccinated or unvaccinated person.

So while the world can scream at the top of their lungs for people to get vaccinated People are still going to get sick whether they are vaccinated or not.

For the record that couple is my wife and I. We are vaccinated. Our close friends are vaccinated and have basically the same story. One mild one harsh symptoms. Our neighbor is not vaccinated and had very mild symptoms.


Now back to the NFL.

If a vaccinated person can contract, pass on a have bad symptoms just like an unvaccinated person. What is the difference? Why should a vaccinated person have any benefit to play because they got the jab over someone who didn't?

Nosir. From Indy but I'm an expat up in Ottawa.

Because that was the collective agreement between the NFL and the players association. It is as simple as that.

Why would the two sides agree to that? Because the only way to get healthy relatively young individuals who are notoriously self focused to do anything is to make it advantageous for them to do it. Left alone I can almost guarantee NFL players would have a significantly lower vaccination rate that the US population. That isn’t good for the NFL, that isn’t good for the players, and it isn’t good for society as a whole. So they have used a carrot and a stick to the best of their abilities to convince NFL players to get vaccinations. And they have been largely successful.

This is something that drives me crazy. People bitch and moan about any inconvenience they encounter in the name of protecting people. So we make concessions, try to offer incentives, or lessen the requirements to try to get max compliance and do the most good. Then the same people causing the issue nitpick any inconsistencies within the compromises they caused. So yeah, I agree it isn’t logical. But if the NFL didn’t make it an advantage to be vaccinated I’d almost guarantee the vaccination rate would be half (or less) of what it is. I’m at a loss for how that makes anything better for anyone other than those players selfish enough to refuse the vaccine. Again - those causing the need to compromise then bitch about the situation they caused.

The vaccine is not supposed to keep you from getting infected (although it can). It is supposed to keep you from kicking the bucket if you are an old fart like me. I'm assuming you are an old fart like me Puck and you didn't kick the bucket. I'm happy you and your wife were vaccinated. It worked.

To answer your last question, it has to do with viral load. Vaccinated folks shed much less virus than unvaccinated people and are less likely to infect others, especially other vaccinated people.