Markings in the NFL
The NFL has recently made the decision that teams in the league should feel free to institute a system whereby they can compel their players to wear articles of clothing or accessories of varying color or design in order to visually identify and differentiate between players who have been vaccinated versus those who have not.
I wasn’t sure if the league could think of a way to let their ratings crater any further, but it seems they’ve found one.
This is a clear and blatant violation of HIPPA legal protections that the players enjoy, for a start. And I’m more than aware that someone with a major in Google Legal Studies will chime in right about now to point out that most, if not all, players have a stipulation in their contracts for each team declaring that any medical condition which will probably and negatively impact their ability to perform on the field of play must be disclosed to their team’s medical staff and head office. Here’s the problem with that attempt at a ‘gotcha’ argument- the status of a player’s vaccination or non-vaccination does not affect their ability to play unless they literally just received the treatment, and are having a negative reaction to it. In other words, unless it’s the day before or day of the game when they receive their shot, this doesn’t hold water.
If we’re going to put accessories on players in the NFL, how about we put a little sticker in the shape of a pair of red handcuffs on the helmets of players who have been charged with domestic assault? Maybe a little beer bottle symbol stitched onto their jersey over the gut for those accused of substance abuse? Maybe put a cartoon joint next to their name on the back of the jersey for those who’ve been suspended for drug use violations? Sure, let’s really get into the spirit of this thing!
Players wear different colored jerseys and designs on their helmets to identify which team they play for, because this is a standard uniform requirement that helps clearly identify who plays for which team. Without this, you can hardly have an organized sport. These vaccination wristbands only serve to attempt to shame players who have opted not to use the vaccination or who, for medical reasons, cannot partake of the formula.
And can we talk for a minute about the acceptance of risk? These players have, for generations, watched as their former colleagues have left the sport to go on and have a demonstrably shortened lifetime filled with surgeries, decreased mobility, mental health disorders from chronic head and spinal injuries, nerve damage, and an inability to get from day to day without using some kind of chemical means of controlling ongoing pain. They do this with the promise only of the possibility of earning a fortune and maybe immortalizing themselves in the arena of sport. Do you somehow think that these known, historically proven risks are lesser in the minds of players than the risk of playing with or against an unvaccinated teammate or opponent?
If you think that, you haven’t been paying attention to the sport.
‘What about trainers and staff and coaches? They’re put at this risk too.’ Yes, yes they are, and this is perhaps the ONLY way in which I might be willing to see the other side of this conversation’s point. But I’d point out that without players, this league doesn’t exist, and those staff and coaches and trainers are shit out of luck for having a job anyway.
NFL players are not superhumans, and they aren’t heroes. They aren’t deserving of any more protections or rights or praise or improved treatment over any other person. Nor, however, are they deserving of being marked in this way, particularly given that, as a cultural institution of sport in America, such a visual cue of differentiation could quickly become normalized throughout the culture.
And before too long, other employers and places of business and industries get it in their head that ‘Hey, if the NFL does it, we can too.’ This is not a foregone conclusion, of course, but the effect of normalization works in both positive and negative ways. Cultural normalization brought us the beneficial effect of removing the negative stereotypical presentations of homosexuals in television and films, which bled ultimately into our day-to-day interactions with and treatment of members of their community. It was long and hard-fought, but we no longer broadly tolerate the sort of crude portrayals of such persons in our media or treatment of them in the real world the way we once did.
The same could not be said of American Muslims in the post-9/11 environment. Immediately, numerous television and film projects, cultural projects, moved to paint all or at least many American Muslims as sleeper agents of chaos, not to be trusted. This fed into a prior distrust in sections of the American public, making a pre-existing prejudice even worse. Shows like ‘24’, ‘NCIS’, ‘Homeland’, and the like, did not help make this problem any better.
You may wonder how any of this relates to football teams compelling their players to wear different colored armbands to indicate their vaccination status. Let me simplify it for you- when a major cultural institution like the NFL says it’s okay to treat people differently based on private medical status or information, others will follow their lead.
I, for one, don’t think that’s a very good idea.