NFL to fine unvaccinated players $14,650 for violating COVID-19 protocols
24 July 2021
The NFL will fine unvaccinated players $14,650 if they violate COVID-19 protocols this season, ESPN reports.
The big picture: The rule change comes two days after the NFL announced that postponed games due to coronavirus outbreaks among unvaccinated players or staffers will not be rescheduled and teams responsible for delays will automatically forfeit.
- NFL Network's Tom Pelissero obtained the league's COVID-19 protocols for the upcoming season in June, which includes different rules for players who are vaccinated versus those who are not.
- Among other protocols, fully vaccinated individuals who are exposed to a COVID-positive individual will not be subject to the mandatory five-day isolation that kept a bunch of players, coaches and others out of games in 2020, per Pelissero.
Major competitive implications here: Fully vaccinated individuals exposed to a COVID-positive individual won’t be labeled a high-risk close contact and subject to the mandatory five-day isolation that kept a bunch of players, coaches and others out of games in 2020. pic.twitter.com/bWmWzSoAHv
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 16, 2021
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.