The government has been trying everything they possibly can to get all Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s worked a bit, but is still being met with great resistance from millions of people.
Along the way, TMZ Sports dropped a damning report exposing the CDC paying the NFL Alumni Association $3.5 million to promote the COVID vaccine, according to TMZ.
“The [CDC] intends to award a sole source firm fixed price purchase order to The NFL Alumni Association (NFLA),” the notice of intent regarding the grant explains, per TMZ. “The overall purpose of this contract is to facilitate collaboration among NFL Alumni and federal state and local public health officials as well as other local leaders to address vaccine hesitancy through communication and engagement with communities less likely to get vaccinated.
. . . The CDC Vaccine Task Force will work directly with the NFLA to promote community-level and national COVID-19 education outreach and vaccination acceptance.”
The goal seems to be to get former players to buy in to the vaccine, hopeful that they will then influence others to do the same. The NFL Alumni’s website has testimonials from former NFL stars like Franco Harris, Rod Woodson and Harry Carson.
Last week, Commissioner Roger Goodell informed clubs of a new policy that threatened forfeits and the loss of game checks if an outbreak among unvaccinated players causes an unresolvable disruption in the regular-season schedule.
If the forfeit occurs, players from both teams will lose their game checks. The team that suffered the outbreak would be responsible for any shortfall in the league’s revenue-sharing pool and also would be credited with a loss for the purposes of playoff seeding, with the opposing team credited with a win.