Cleveland Browns players need to remember Covid-19 impact on 2020

Baker Mayfield gets it.

Quarterback Baker Mayfield clearly gets it. NFL teams who are fully vaccinated are prepared to win. Those teams who are fearful or who attach political motives to vaccines are welcome to do so, but they also welcome to lose football games. The rest of the NFL does not care one little, tiny bit if these players do not want to do what is necessary to win.

In fact, the NFL needs 31 teams to be losers so that one team can win the Super Bowl. If the Browns or some other team wants to step up and do whatever is necessary to lose, the NFL is totally, 100% okay with that. Call Red Right 88 every play if you are uncomfortable with winning. The NFL does not care if your team does not want to win.

If the Browns want to win, it is up to the Browns to ensure that they are doing what is necessary to win, and no one else.

Teams that are vaccinated are much less susceptible to a dread disease and are very likely to recover quickly, and the rules favor return to the field quicker for those who are asymptomatic.

Why would you not want that for your team?

The NFL cares about the health of its players, but they also care about the health of their finances, and they are not going to allow player fears or brave political convictions (call it what you will) to cost the league millions of dollars of revenue. If failure to vaccinate, no matter how well-intentioned, results in the loss of millions of dollars, the league is coming after the players who cause it.

It’s *Pro* Football; that means they are supposed to make money, and if they fail to make money for a preventable reason, the NFL will be on those players with gentle but firm corrections. Gentle like a falling safe.

To the extent possible within the context of the law and the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the NFL will seek to ensure that players assume responsibility for their actions.