Pete Carroll has Seahawks goal of 100% player vaccinations by the start of training camp
The Mariners have been dealing with COVID-19 issues in their pitching staff and have among the lowest vaccination rates in Major League Baseball.
Meanwhile Seattle’s NFL team, the only one in its league without a positive COVID test in 2020, has set a goal to be 100% vaccinated for the 2021 season.
Coach Pete Carroll said he again on Thursday urged his relatively fewer Seahawks players who have yet to get a COVID-19 vaccine to get one before their training camp begins at the end of July.
Carroll, 70, is the NFL’s oldest coach. He’s talked how he’s at more risk over COVID-19 than most coaches. He and his wife Glena have made it personal crusades to avoid getting the coronavirus and advocating for ways to protect from and beat it.
“I’ve been in the conversation since the whole vaccination thing got under away, with the players, trying to educate them and introduce them to ways of looking at stuff in perspective for the guys that are in question and had questions,” Carroll said.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday 30 of 32 teams have more than 90% of their Tier 1 and 2 coaches, general managers and staff that interact with in-person with players on a regular basis personnel are vaccinated. Goodell said the other two teams are above 85%.
The 85% number matches what Major League Baseball has set as the benchmark vaccination rate for its Tier 1 personnel to relax its COVID-19 restrictions such as mask-wearing and having to quarantine if found by contract tracing to have been around someone who tests positive.
The Mariners are believed to have a player vaccination rate of around 50%, and are reportedly among the least-vaccinated teams in baseball.
Goodell this week did not answer what percentage of NFL players are vaccinated. That’s likely because of privacy and players’-union concerns.
Carroll, when asked how many Seahawks players are vaccinated, said: “I don’t know what our numbers are.”
“I made a pitch again (Thursday) to our guys, so that they are aware that the time frame that is left from the summertime until before camp starts, that ideally we would like to get everyone vaccinated before we report to camp just to make it as safe as possible to everyone,” Carroll said. “I have had some conversations with guys.”
Carroll brought in Dr. Vin Gupta to talk to Seahawks players via Zoom this offseason. Gupta is an affiliate assistant professor of health metrics sciences at the Institude for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle. He is widely known for his medical commentary on NBC News, particularly in the last 16 months about the coronavirus pandemic.
“He came in here and talked to our guys about it and gave a really big pitch,” to get vaccinated, Carroll said.
The Seahawks have provided families of players, coaches and staff chances to get vaccinated, “just to keep the message alive and keep it moving,” Carroll said.
Last year, while keeping the players from having a positive COVID-19 case the Seahawks arranged for family members and every visitor to players to get the same COVID test the players were getting each day in the parking lot of team headquarters.
“We have a ways to go, but our goal is to get everyone vaccinated before we start them up (for training camp),” Carroll said.
That’s two months almost to the day away.
The NFL is being careful not to mandate vaccines for players. The league’s approach is like other sports’, including baseball: give vaccinated players pre-pandemic freedoms and a return to basically normal, to hopefully entice or convince those so-far reluctant or refusing to get the vaccine.
This week the NFL announced it had agreed with its players’ union that fully vaccinated players will no longer have to be tested daily, as they were for all of the 2020 preseason, regular season and postseason. Vaccinated players will not have to wear masks at team facilities, as they did all last year into this year. They will not be subject to quarantine after exposure to a COVID-positive individual. They will have no travel restrictions. They may eat in the team dining areas and use the sauna and steam room. They also will not be subject to capacity limits in team weight rooms. They will be allowed to interact with vaccinated family and friends during travel.
Those players not vaccinated must conduct themselves the opposite of all of that—in other words, those not vaccinated must remain in 2020 pandemic restrictions in all team and travel settings.
While eliminating restrictions with the vaccinated, the league is sensitive to avoid any impression among players they may be in danger of losing a roster spot if they are not vaccinated this season.
“It’s not going to be a personnel decision,” Carroll said. “This is an individual’s decision to make.
“Sometimes it takes other elements to motivate you to do things. In this case, we would like guys to do it for everyone around them as well as themselves, as well as their families. It’s not going to determine a guy making or not making the football team, but it does change your mentality. It does adjust how you’re thinking.
“There’s a freedom to (getting vaccinated) that is refreshing. There is a sense of confidence about it that supports your work and your interaction with the guys around you. We will do the best we can. And it’s important that we get it done in all directions.”
