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The news has been... well let's be honest, Twitter has been cluttered in the past few days with arguments between players and fans about getting the vaccine after the NFL sent a memo to teams stating that if a team has a COVID-19 breakout among unvaccinated players, they risk a forfeit if the game can’t be rescheduled, and no players would receive their paychecks on either team.
There is a reason for hope that this will not affect the Seattle Seahawks (at least from a losing games standpoint), as Corbin Smith of Seahawk Maven and The Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar both reported that the Seahawks players are over 90% vaccinated (including players who are scheduled for a second shot).
Can confirm now through multiple sources #Seahawks are one of the teams above 90% vaccination rate for players.
— Corbin K. Smith (@CorbinSmithNFL) July 23, 2021
This means players are fully vaccinated, are scheduled for second shot, or are in 14-day window after second shot.
The Seahawks have more than 90 percent of their players vaccinated, according to a source. That means most of the team is either fully vaccinated, awaiting a second shot or in the 14-day period following their second shot.
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) July 23, 2021
Pete Carroll had already revealed that the entire staff had been vaccinated, something the NFL required out of its Tier 1 and Tier 2 employees since April.
The Seahawks have a full offseason roster of 90 players, and while we know that at least 81 of them are vaccinated, we do not know if the nine (or fewer) of them who are not vaccinated are players who could be cut or players who will be on the regular-season roster. One player we do know who (reluctantly, based off his tweet) just received his first dose was cornerback DJ Reed.
I didn’t want to get the vaccine. We don’t know the long term effects. If you have the vaccine you can still catch COVID. The NFL & NFLPA made getting the vaccine a competitive advantage. I just got my vaccine because I don’t want to hinder my team, idk how I feel about that ♂️.
— DJ_2Great (@D7_Reed) July 22, 2021
Seattle is just one of nine teams in the NFL that, as of July 23, have a 90% vaccination rate or higher among players. Things can change of course, but as it stands right now Seattle is in a good place to not have to worry as much as most other teams when it comes to a potential outbreak and the possibility of a cancelled game. The same can’t be said for three Seahawks’ opponents — Indianapolis, Arizona, and Washington are among the teams with the lowest vaccination rates in the league.