The Bears likely will have some snags this season, but they are optimistic a coronavirus outbreak won’t be one of them.
General manager Ryan Pace said at least 85% of the players are vaccinated, and the NFL is expected to scale back the protocol for teams who hit that number. With players reporting Tuesday and beginning practice Wednesday, there’s little point in continuing to try to persuade the holdouts to get the vaccine.
“We really went through this process and lived by the ‘encourage and educate’ [approach] and try to let them understand the why part,” coach Matt Nagy said. “If they understand the why part, then it’s their choice. As we all see, everyone has different opinions on what they want to do.”
Nagy also stressed the “more convenient” route of getting vaccinated by contrasting it with the cumbersome protocol unvaccinated players are required to follow.
Quarterback Andy Dalton, wide receiver Allen Robinson and linebacker Roquan Smith spoke to the media Tuesday, and while none of them disclosed their vaccination status, all three held press conferences without wearing a mask. Masks are required at all times inside Halas Hall for unvaccinated players, and the fines for violating any coronavirus-related rule is $14,650.
“Everything that everybody went through last year, we were all a little bit inconvenienced,” Nagy said. “With the new rules, if you get vaccinated, it’s different.”
Teams can’t require players to get vaccinated, but unvaccinated players will have many more rules to follow. In addition to the mask mandate, they will be tested every day, forced to quarantine if they’re a close contact of someone who tests positive and barred from eating meals with teammates. On the road, they can’t go to restaurants or interact with people outside the organization.
The biggest penalty, however, could be for being involved in an outbreak. The NFL advised teams last week that if an outbreak among unvaccinated players makes it impossible to play a game and it can’t be rescheduled within the season, the team with the outbreak will forfeit the game. Players for both teams would also forfeit their game checks.
Even with that threat, though, the vaccine figures to be a divisive topic in the locker room.
“I can’t go into this trying to force guys or incentivize guys to get a vaccine or something like that to play a game for my sole benefit,” said Robinson, who would lose more than $1 million in that scenario. “Unfortunately, that is a risk that everybody takes. Based on how much guys are making or what guys are making, that ramification is a little bit higher.”
The Bears did not put any players on the reserve/COVID-19 list for training camp as of Tuesday evening.
They had minimal issues with the virus last season and avoided a full-blown outbreak, which is a credit to Nagy and head athletic trainer Andre Tucker. There was no significant chance of having a game postponed.
Their biggest scare was in November, when rookie offensive lineman Lachavious Simmons flew with the team for its game against the Titans, then received a positive result after arriving. Safety Deon Bush also reported after the flight that he had been in close contact with someone who tested positive.
Those issues surfaced after offensive tackle Jason Spriggs and then-center Cody Whitehair had already been ruled out because of positive tests the week before, leaving the Bears with a makeshift offensive line for their 24-17 loss.
