Rams CB Jalen Ramsey won't pressure teammates to get COVID-19 vaccine: 'It's a personal decision'
Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey told reporters Thursday that he will not pressure his teammates to get the COVID-19 vaccine ahead of the 2021 season despite the consequences the deadly virus could have on the team's season.
"I'm not pro-vax or anti-vax at all," Ramsey told reporters, according to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio. "It's a personal decision to me. The only reason I had tweeted something about it was because one of my friends had said, if you don't get the vax now, then you're just a bad teammate and I just quote tweeted it. My point of the tweet was to say, I won't think that you're a bad teammate because of your personal decision, whether you get it or not. I don't look at it like that. You know what I mean?"
Ramsey's comments come after he tweeted last week that the NFL is "pressuring" players to get vaccinated.
While players aren't required to get vaccinated, the NFL is making it harder for the unvaccinated. The league recently said in a memo that teams who have a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players will be forced to forfeit their postponed games if they cannot be rescheduled within the 18-week schedule.
Unvaccinated players will also be subject to a $14,650 fine every time they violate COVID-19 protocols.
According to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, 85% of the league's players have received at least one shot, and 14 of the NFL's 32 clubs have vaccination rates over 90%.
More must-reads: