The Athletic's #1 reason the Bills won't hoist Lombardi (note the final paragraph)

[CincyBillsFan]

I don't know about others but life is full of worries and it's hard enough dealing with bad things that have actually happened. I'm choosing to not worry about whether Beasley or other unvaccinated Bills catch the covid and are unable to play for 2weeks.  If it happens it happens, just like an injury.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

24 minutes ago, Dr. Who said:

Well, you and I often have similar sensibility. Just have to accept that one has to keep quiet on matters outside of football as the price of hanging out here. Back in medieval Europe when universities were founded, dialectical back-and-forth allowed for vigorous debate, though I surmise everyone probably still thought the other side was often full of blockheads . . . 

 

This isn't the place for a scholarly review of the history of dialectics in medieval theology, just to point out that a statement that they were "allowed for vigorous debate" is a vast oversimplification of the situation.  Even when/where they were allowed, there were boundries - such as within certain forums and not others.

[Dr. Who]

Just now, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

This isn't the place for a scholarly review of the history of dialectics in medieval theology, just to point out that a statement that they were "allowed for vigorous debate" is a vast oversimplification of the situation.  Even when/where they were allowed, there were boundries - such as within certain forums and not others.

Okay. I don't think I was advocating otherwise. 

[Radar]

28 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

To me, the issue isn't about whether a player is vaccinated...its more about guys like Cole intentionally boasting how he wont follow protocols away from the facility.  And I hope now that they are all together at camp, preseason, practices, etc...that the staff and his teammates have at least gotten through to him in that regard.

 

They have the freedom of choice, so now just be responsible and follow the safety protocols laid out that come along with that choice, and make no mistake about it, those responsibilities are still important.  There is a go fund me account to help a woman I knows recovery who yesterday just got out of the hospital after being there 6 weeks and even on a ventilator after getting COVID.  She was also already vaccinated, but the Delta variant hit her hard.

 

Sad part is, the only reason I know her is because she hosted the funeral reception at her house for my friend Brian back in June who died from complications and damage caused by COVID that he had a year earlier and had been on life support for 19 days before passing.  Brian was a die hard Steelers fan and I will have a patch on my Allen jersey in his honor when I am in Buffalo at the game week 1.

 

A few members of my staff in Denver right now have COVID, and all of them are also vaccinated, but they are still pretty sick at home for several days and now feel like crap despite all being under 35 years old.  Someones kid brought it home from school they think is how they got it.

 

Point is...vaccinated or unvaccinated...COVID is still dangerous.  So if you are choosing not to get vaccinated, thats is 100% anyones choice and I support that.  But don't be irresponsible towards your staff and teammates by completely disregarding the safety protocols put in place to help protect the team and support their goals of winning a championship.  And again, hoping that side of Coles attitude towards it has improved now that he is around his mates and the facility.  

 

 

I was so happy they signed Beasley. Be just as happy to see him go. He's obviously another self absorbed athlete who doesn't care about anyone else. Go back to Texas!

[Motorin']

9 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

This isn't the place for a scholarly review of the history of dialectics in medieval theology, just to point out that a statement that they were "allowed for vigorous debate" is a vast oversimplification of the situation.  Even when/where they were allowed, there were boundries - such as within certain forums and not others.

 

What, we won't be getting a doctorate in medieval dialectics after reaching our 100,000th post? What a rip off!

[Alphadawg7]

3 minutes ago, Radar said:

I was so happy they signed Beasley. Be just as happy to see him go. He's obviously another self absorbed athlete who doesn't care about anyone else. Go back to Texas!

 

I dont want to see him go, unless he become detrimental to the team.  As of right now, I can't say he is or isn't being that.  He said some really stupid stuff on Twitter, but until I see him actually do something that puts his teammates availability in jeopardy, I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he will do right by his teammates.  Outside of his twitter comments, everything else about him suggests he is a team first guy in every other way and well loved in the locker room.  

 

Social media is just toxic in general.

[Rc2catch]

16 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

I dont want to see him go, unless he become detrimental to the team.  As of right now, I can't say he is or isn't being that.  He said some really stupid stuff on Twitter, but until I see him actually do something that puts his teammates availability in jeopardy, I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he will do right by his teammates.  Outside of his twitter comments, everything else about him suggests he is a team first guy in every other way and well loved in the locker room.  

 

Social media is just toxic in general.

Very well said. Twitter world could be his downfall but his team still seems to stand by him for the most part. It’s probably not as serious as media outlets would like us to believe. Beasley probably won’t be here much longer but that’s more Father Time than Twitter, at least I hope. 

[Boatdrinks]

Yawn, awful take but not surprising. The Bills biggest obstacle is the Chiefs, period end of story. Every team has to deal with the silly NFL protocols and those are the issue. I respect the Bills players and their personal medical decisions. Nothing could be more personal, and that comes before anything you do on a football field or other place of employment. 

[RiotAct]

3 hours ago, f0neguy said:

Looking at the above noted statistics, any guess as to the percentage of Bills fans that will be vaccinated at the opener?  55-60%?  More, less?  🤔

41.938%

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, Radar said:

I was so happy they signed Beasley. Be just as happy to see him go. He's obviously another self absorbed athlete who doesn't care about anyone else. Go back to Texas!

 

I don't think this is obvious at all. 

 

Beasley presents himself as concerned for protecting his unvaccinated teammates. 

 

Given that goal, Beasley is muddies his own waters with some of the stuff he tweets (which is "shaking my damn head" level), but he's not wrong about other things - like the fact that the NFL preseason protocols testing vaccinated players and staff only once every two weeks (unless they are symptomatic) is not sufficient to preclude a vaccinated player or staff member from exposing people in the facility.

 

The NFLPA recognized this by requesting the NFL to return to daily testing of everyone, and the NFL tacitly agreed by returning to 1x/week testing with an "optional" midweek test available.

 

 

[CincyBillsFan]

I wonder if the Bills are testing players to determine if they have naturally derived immunity? Would the union or the players even allow such testing?  The reason I'm asking is that natural immunity appears to be very robust, long lasting and effective against the different covid strains.  Knowing whether any of their unvaccinated players have natural immunity might allow them to better estimate their susceptibility to testing positive for covid?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HOUSE]

Subscribe to the Athletic for $1 they said...

 

Its a deal they said....😬

 

 

 

[transplantbillsfan]

11 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

It's really unfortunate that there is an NFL team/organization registering a 100% vaccination rate, and the Bills are NOT that team. And I say this as a purely competitive football observation. The Bills have on their roster a handful of important players who have chosen not to get vaccinated, which means the team's roster is potentially more vulnerable to COVID-related disruptions during the season than the teams they're competing against. 

 

Last season's champions, for example, the Bucs, have ALL elected to be vaccinated (coaches and players). Even snake-oil salesman TB12 and his well-hydrated acolytes have fallen in line; not necessarily because they each believe in the efficacy of the vaccines, so much as they have decided, collectively, to place team accountability above individual skepticism. I'm actually surprised by a Brady-led 100% compliance rate, given the QB's documented history as a pseudo-science guru.

 

Good for them, in terms of collective accountability and compliance. It pains me to type it.

 

Personal beliefs aside, if Bills vs Bucs were to miraculously be the Super Bowl matchup this year, during the 2 week media fiasco that is the lead-up to that game, the entire coaching staff would have an extra thing to worry about, monitor and talk to the team about--probably multiple times. That's of course if Buffalo still has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the NFL, which they currently do.

 

That's a competitive disadvantage.

[Billsfanatic8989]

I'm not going to get into the Covid political talk. Everyone has a choice to make. I respect that.

 

Football wise, there's one major reason we wouldn't get to a SB: Patrick Mahomes. That's obvious.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, Boatdrinks said:

Yawn, awful take but not surprising. The Bills biggest obstacle is the Chiefs, period end of story. Every team has to deal with the silly NFL protocols and those are the issue. I respect the Bills players and their personal medical decisions. Nothing could be more personal, and that comes before anything you do on a football field or other place of employment. 

 

I would agree that the Bills players medical decisions are private.  There's a distinction between a private and a personal decision.  If your private decision potentially impacts others - relatives, friends, coworkers - it's kind of by definition no longer personal.

 

You're also correct that every team has to deal with the NFL protocols.

 

The germaine point here is that teams which are 100% vaccinated (or close to it) have less to deal with from the NFL protocols which are, silly or not, the rules everyone must follow.  For example, the Bucs are not at risk of having half their starting WR room be quarantined outside the facility for 5 days due to a close exposure to Covid.

 

Whether you or I think that's a good rule or a bad rule, Matters Not - it 's the NFL's rule, that, as you point out, every team has to deal with, and it's going to impact the Bills more than teams who are closer to 100% vaccinated.

[Billsfanatic8989]

1 hour ago, Boatdrinks said:

Yawn, awful take but not surprising. The Bills biggest obstacle is the Chiefs, period end of story. Every team has to deal with the silly NFL protocols and those are the issue. I respect the Bills players and their personal medical decisions. Nothing could be more personal, and that comes before anything you do on a football field or other place of employment. 

I said Mahomes is their biggest obstacle. But yes the Chiefs as a whole are better than we are. On paper.

 

But being better on paper only counts in the NBA. Not so much in football.

[transplantbillsfan]

4 hours ago, 4merper4mer said:

The good news is that if the Bills are one of the 31 teams that don’t win the Super Bowl, some douche will find a way to point to his article as the reason by using twisted pretzel logic because a backup’s third cousin got sick.  Hooray for journalism.

 

If Beasley or Gabe Davis or Star or Milano or any combination of them or other important players (I don't think it'll be Josh... I'd bet he got the shot at this point) misses the Super Bowl or a playoff game, I'll do someone else a favor and fall on the sword and take your title of "douche" and bump this thread

[ColoradoBills]

I've made peace with family members regarding their decisions about vaccinations and I am doing the same with the Buffalo Bills players.

What is going to happen will happen and my opinion won't change anything.

 

I'm off this merry-go-round.  All I have left to say is good luck to anyone suffering because of this situation.

Go Bills.

[Boatdrinks]

2 minutes ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

I said Mahomes is their biggest obstacle. But yes the Chiefs as a whole are better than we are. On paper.

 

But being better on paper only counts in the NBA. Not so much in football.

Sure, you could break it down to Mahomes ( or any top teams starting QB) and you’d not be wrong. A major injury to Mahomes would definitely change the dynamic. I’d still say the Chiefs as a team/ coach though(assuming a healthy Mahomes) until the Bills beat them. The Bills were out coached and overmatched in some areas. We will see if they manage to beat ‘em soon enough. The Athletic should say “NFL protocols“ and they’d be much closer to the truth than claiming a virus is the #1 reason the Bills won’t be champions. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

23 minutes ago, CincyBillsFan said:

I wonder if the Bills are testing players to determine if they have naturally derived immunity? Would the union or the players even allow such testing?  The reason I'm asking is that natural immunity appears to be very robust, long lasting and effective against the different covid strains.  Knowing whether any of their unvaccinated players have natural immunity might allow them to better estimate their susceptibility to testing positive for covid?

 

The union and players apparently allow voluntary antibody testing, but I don't think it would tell you much.  Why, is beyond the scope here.

 

For an NFL example, Lamar Jackson had Covid-19 last fall and was re-infected this summer.  It clearly happens.

 

If you read the NFL protocols closely (I haven't found the new protocols yet, but this aspect from the preseason protocols hasn't changed, a player who contracts covid confirmed by a positive PCR test, is exempt from testing for the next 90 days (p 66):
 

Quote

iii. Previously documented positive virus test results.
1. Any player, or Tiered Individual who can provide documented
evidence of a positive test result from an approved rt-PCR test
(“Original Positive Test”) will be exempted from the normal virus
testing cadence required in this section for a period of ninety (90)
days from the date of the Original Positive Test. This individual
must continue to check in each day for a symptom screen. The
aforementioned documented evidence shall be provided to the
Club’s ICO and reviewed and approved in conjunction with ICS
and the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer. After the expiration of that
90-day period, any such non-fully vaccinated individual shall
receive required virus testing one (1) time per week, until such
time as that individual receives a negative test result. Once that
individual has received a negative test result, he or she will be
returned to the regular testing cadence required for an individual in
his or her Tier. Any positive test result received after that non-
fully vaccinated individual has received two consecutive negative
test results shall be treated as a new positive test, and the
individual shall be subject to the requirements of the Treatment
Response Protocol.
2. Any player who is not fully vaccinated (including Free Agents,
Tryout, and players acquired from other clubs) who is exempted
from testing due to a previously documented positive virus test as
described in Subsection (1) above will not be subject to the Entry
or Re-Entry testing that would otherwise be required for that player
pursuant to this Protocol during the period of his exemption from
testing. Such an exemption must be approved by the NFL Chief
Medical Officer in advance of the player’s entry into a Club
facility. Such a player will be, however, subject to daily symptom
screening.

 

So teams probably track who has actually been infected. 

 

The NFL also recognizes some impact of natural immunity because a player with a previous positive PCR test for Covid  needs 1 vaccine shot to be counted as fully immunized.