The NFL Players Association wants daily COVID-19 tests for fully vaccinated players.
The league and union agreed last week to update the protocol so that vaccinated players would be tested weekly instead of every 14 days as they were during training camp.
That's not enough, according to NFLPA president and Cleveland Browns center Jesse Tretter.
"Since the start of the training camp, we have been testing our vaccinated players once every 14 days," Tretter wrote in a column on the union's website. “It has been ineffective because there have been significantly more incidents of transmission inside the building this year than last year. The NFLPA saw this coming months earlier and is advocating for the return of daily testing as it [a] more effective way to try and stop the spread of the coronavirus in our locker rooms. However, the NFL decided to go into weekly testing; and while this is a step in the right direction, it leaves us open to the same problems we face. have been facing."
93% of players in the recently announced league have been vaccinated. Unvaccinated players are tested daily and face strict protocol requirements. The league did not immediately respond to a request for a response to Traitor's comments.
"We're all tired," Tretor wrote. "No one likes that this is the world we're still living in this season. Nobody likes mitigation methods. But we can't go easy on what's right. We don't like what's right." We have been warned by our experts that, due to our current testing cadence, we are at greater risk of missing games this season than last season. If we continue to go down this path So, I want everyone in the football community to know what's next."
In his column, Traitor also criticized the league's taunting point.
"We would support the immediate removal of this point," Tretter said. "Fans enjoy the intensity and raw emotion that our players show on the field; and most of the time, players understand the line between that emotion and poor sportsmanship."