Washington pass rusher Montez Sweat said Wednesday he doesn’t support the team’s attempt to persuade players to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Sweat said he “probably won’t get vaccinated until I got more facts and that type of stuff, but I’m not a fan of it at all.”
Asked what was causing his hesitancy, the 24-year-old said: “I haven’t caught COVID yet. I don’t see me treating COVID until I actually get COVID.”
Coach Ron Rivera said his staff and team employees were all fully vaccinated, compared with nearly half of players.
“We’re slowly getting more and more players vaccinated,” Rivera said. “It’s a choice. They’ve got to make a choice. We’re trying to stress the fact that if we can get to herd immunity we’ll really be able to get out there and enjoy things, so hopefully that’ll happen.”
Washington brought in Harvard immunologist Kizzmekia S. Corbett to speak with players Tuesday night about the vaccines. Rivera said it was a good forum to discuss concerns.
“We’re trying to gather as much information and allow the players to get as much information so they can make a choice and make a decision,” Rivera said. “The big thing is we’ve got to be able to facilitate the opportunity for these guys to understand. There’s a lot of messaging that’s out there that they get off of Twitter and some of it’s good, some of it’s bad.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, warned Tuesday that the delta virus variant first detected in India is becoming more prevalent in the U.S. He said vaccines have proven less effective against that variant when people are not fully immunized, and evidence points to it being more transmissible and more deadly.
Sweat said the team wants members to get vaccinations in order to remove travel and facility restrictions, adding, “but everybody has their own beliefs and they’re entitled to their own decision.”
Washington is in the midst of mandatory minicamp, after voluntary offseason workouts that Sweat did not take part in.
PACKERS: The Green Bay Packers added a veteran presence at inside linebacker by signing De’Vondre Campbell.
Campbell comes to Green Bay after starting all 16 games for the Arizona Cardinals last season and posting 99 tackles, including 69 solos. Campbell, 27, previously spent four seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, who selected him out of Minnesota in the fourth round of the 2016 draft.
BRONCOS: Peyton Manning was elected to the Broncos Ring of Fame in recognition of his record-breaking four-year run in Denver that culminated with a victory in Super Bowl 50.
Manning will be honored during a game against Washington at Empower Field at Mile High on Halloween, less than three months after his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 8.
The six-member selection committee unanimously selected Manning as the 35th member of the team’s Ring of Fame. Last year’s honoree, former coach Mike Shanahan, also will be honored this season after the pandemic prevented his ceremony in 2020.
Manning joins Champ Bailey (2019) as the only Broncos selected to the team’s Ring of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the same season.
BROWNS: Chief of staff Callie Brownson has been suspended by the team but will not lose her job after an arrest for drunken driving.
Brownson, one of just a handful of female coaches in the NFL, pleaded no contest Tuesday in a Brunswick court to charges stemming from her arrest last month. She had her license suspended for one year and will have to take an intervention course.
Browns Coach Kevin Stefanski, who hired Brownson last year and has praised her work, said she has been disciplined by the team. He did not reveal the length of her suspension but said she’s going to remain employed by the Browns.
CHIEFS: The Kansas City Chiefs promoted Mike Borgonzi to assistant general manager and Brandt Tilis to vice president of football operations amid a wave of personnel moves within the AFC champions’ front office.
Borgonzi began with the Chiefs as a college scouting administrator in 2009 and has been kept on staff by then-general manager John Dorsey and current GM Brett Veach. He moved into roles directing pro personnel before becoming director of player personnel in 2017 and director of football operations the following season.
Tilis has been Kansas City’s salary cap expert and lead negotiator on player contracts. His ability to crunch numbers has raised the interest of several clubs, including the Panthers, who interviewed him for their recent GM opening.
Among other promotions, top scout Ryan Poles was appointed executive director of player personnel and Mike Bradway senior director of player personnel. Ryne Nutt will be senior director of college scouting, Trey Koziol a senior director of pro personnel, Trey Koziol the assistant director of college scouting and Willie Davis the senior personnel executive.
GERMANY: The NFL wants to expand its international series by holding regular-season games in Germany, launching a process to identify a partner city.
Germany boasts a strong NFL fan base and is one of the world’s largest economies, making the country an attractive partner.
The NFL has staged 28 regular-season games in London since 2007 and will play two more in October at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. German fans often travel to London to attend games, the league said.
“We are very excited about the development of our German fan base, and the time is right to identify a partner who can execute a game at NFL standards as part of our international growth strategy,” Brett Gosper, the NFL’s head of UK and Europe, said in a statement.
The NFL has hired London-based The Sports Consultancy to assist, including working with interested cities to develop their proposals.
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