NFLPA investgating Jaguars Coach Ureban Meyer over vaccination comment

Big Ten commissioner was Meyer’s puppet. Doesn’t work that way in the NFL. 

Ladies & gentlemen…the next head coach of UM.  Shoot me now.

Brace yourselves, "health problems" for Urban are on the horizon.

It’s remarkable to me that you make public rules that have direct effect on your competitive process and then go after a guy for being honest about trying to run his team by those rules.

I am not an advocate for or against the rules.  But they are the rules. 

This NFLPA investigation makes no sense. 1,696 players will be on opening day rosters regardless of their vaccination status, it's a zero sum game.

I wonder if Roger Goodell is worried that Urban may fire him?

Fuck Urban Meyer.  That is all.

Isn't it ironic that a man whose nickname is Urban Liar is in trouble for telling the truth? Don't you think?

He just said what probably most every other coach in the NFL is thinking but just doesn't want to say out loud. I don't have an issue if vaccination status is used as a factor in whether to cut a player or not. You are of course free to get the vaccine or not (just like any company is free to tell you the terms of your employment), but as someone else in this thread said, one of the greatest assets you can have in the league is availability.

All other things being equal, if you aren't vaccinated and are out more consistently than others because you're in quarantine, infected, sick, etc., and you're on the border line of whether you're making the team or not, then I'm personally taking the guy who's also on the border line but is vaccinated. Because I have a lot less to worry about, health-wise, with him than I do with you. 

That being said, it'll be a lesson learned for Meyer in this situation, because he's no longer the alpha and omega, "whatever I say goes and if you don't like it there's the door" top dog within the program. Your players have a lot more power and leverage in the pros than they do in college. You have a boss (the GM) and your boss has a boss (the owner), and if either of them don't like what you're doing, especially when you're just starting out and have no on-field results to fall back on, that could be a problem for you. Never mind the player's union which is happy to assert itself in situations like this. 

This isn't going to result in anything like Meyer losing his job, but its probably going to serve as a long-term reminder for him that he needs to choose his words more carefully. Even if what he's saying is right. He can't get away with doing or saying whatever he wants in the pros like he can in college. There's just not that same level of rank-and-file buy-in. 

Great move by Meyer here. If he gets himself in trouble here he's one step closer to having a way out of the NFL if things start to go against him on the field. Next level thinking. Big brain move.

Lord have mercy. As much as I detest Meyer, he's just saying out loud the thing we all already knew.

Of fucking course vaccination status matters in a player's profile. The same way a torn miniscus would matter. It's a competetive disadvantage, and out of two similar players otherwise who would you pick? The guy who could be sidelined just for coming into contact with a covid-positive person? Or the guy who wouldn't have to sit at all in that situation?

I mean you can't tell me it didn't have an affect on the Pats decision to cut Cam Newton. May not have been the only reason, but it certainly was a factor. 

What's the NFLPA's position here? Is using vaccination status as a consideration in choosing to cut/not cut a player somehow a violation of the negotiated terms of the CBA? I wonder what the CBA does say in regards to how teams are supposed to make roster decisions.

The NFLPA isn't fighting the new COVID testing rules, so presumably they're ok with this. It would be hard to fault any NFL coach for doing the same. Look at the Newton case. He was tested that day, but not where the Patriots train. So he went into lockdown. Sure, it was Newton's fault for not following the rules to the letter - football players understand that concept quite well. The rules are designed to make the decision not to be vaccinated quite uncomfortable. We can agree or disagree with that decision, but with that decision in place, an NFL coach is not going to want an unvaccinated player on the team unless he's invaluable. Meyer is guilty only of saying aloud what every coach in the league is thinking.

The obsession with all things Urban has a strong Sparty feel to it.