Kirk Cousins is the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. He is unvaccinated, and the team organization is trying to make it easier for Cousins to stay unvaccinated, because he’s one of those people who thinks staying unvaccinated is a matter of personal freedom and personal choice, rather than a ghastly, irresponsible threat to public safety. Cousins was just placed in another round of Covid-19 exposure protocols and he blamed the size of the room for his exposure. He still hasn’t tested positive for Covid, but this latest round of league protocols has not changed his mind about vaccinations.
A league source confirmed to ESPN that the size of Minnesota’s quarterback room did factor into Cousins being deemed a close contact. The quarterback said his position group is moving to a larger meeting room to avoid this issue in the future.
“As I said to Coach [Mike] Zimmer last night, I said, ‘We can meet in the indoor, we can meet outside,'” Cousins said. “And I said, ‘If it means meeting outside under a goalpost in January, if that’s what it takes to get to the playoffs and be in playoff games and win playoff games, then that’s where we’re going to meet.’ We’re going to avoid this close-contact thing with everything we possibly can do. I was not aware of the meeting room size being an issue. Otherwise, I would have spoken up and said, ‘We obviously can’t meet here.'”
Cousins called his vaccination decision “a very private health matter” and would not disclose whether the situation he found himself in this week would persuade him to receive the vaccine to prevent this issue from popping up during the season. The quarterback repeatedly referred to the need for following the NFL-NFLPA’s protocols as the best measure of protection against contracting the virus or being deemed a close contact.
“I do believe that as a leader of the team, it’s very important to follow the protocols to avoid this close contact — because that is what it’s going to come down to,” Cousins said. “Did you have a close contact? So I’m going to be vigilant about avoiding a close contact. I’ve even thought about, should I just set up literally Plexiglas around where I sit, so this could never happen again? I’ve thought about it, because I’m going to do whatever it takes. We’re going to avoid this close-contact thing, and I look forward to making sure I’m playing for every game this year.”
“I’ve even thought about, should I just set up literally Plexiglas around where I sit…” Or you could just get the free, safe, effective g–damn vaccine. He would still likely be exposed and end up in some Covid-protocol situations even if he was fully vaccinated, but at least he would protect himself, protect the people around him and actually role-model responsible behavior. Apparently, the Minnesota Vikings have the lowest vaccination rate in the NFL, with only 64.5% of the players fully vaccinated. Um… when is the NFL going to mandate vaccines for players? Because that needs to happen. I understand that the NFL would probably have to work with the NFL players’ union (the NFLPA) on that, but realistically, the union should be leading the charge on a vaccine mandate.
Kirk Cousins, who refuses to get vaccinated, says he’s willing to sit inside a plexiglass structure at work to avoid getting infected with Covid pic.twitter.com/ywZlo4SaXH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 6, 2021
Photos courtesy of Getty.
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