Patrick Mahomes Playing With The Flu Highlights NFL's COVID Silliness
Patrick Mahomes has the flu. The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback was added to the injury report Sunday morning, but the team made it clear he would play in the Week 8 game against the Denver Broncos.
After all, it's not like he has (Gasp!) COVID or something.
It wasn't too long ago that the NFL implemented and enforced downright draconian policies to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Exposing the whole team to the flu, though? Totally fine!
For the record, I don't care that Mahomes is playing with the flu. But the situation highlights the pure silliness of the way the NFL handled the COVID pandemic just two years ago.
In 2021, the NFL and its Players Association released a 101-page document detailing updated COVID protocol for the regular season.
Yes, 101 pages.
The document outlined everything from masks to daily testing and even which building entrance you were allowed to use based on vaccination status.
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Then-Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers — who was and continues to be villainized by left-wing sports media for his decision not to get the COVID jab — shared his bizarre experience on The Pat McAfee Show.
He explained how the NFL doled out nonsensical and arbitrary rules that picked on and singled out the unvaccinated.
Rodgers said he got tested at 5 a.m. each day. Then, he was required to wait in his vehicle for 30 to 40 minutes after the test before he was allowed to enter the building. Rodgers said he had to work out on the side while the vaccinated players were able to congregate in the weight room. The NFL also made him wear a yellow wristband in the team sauna, "basically shouting to the world I'm unclean and I'm unvaxxed."
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Patrick Mahomes Can Play With The Flu But He Couldn't With COVID
Now, of course, we know the vaccine does nothing to prevent the infection or the spread of COVID-19. And those masks everyone had to wear in the facilities and on the sideline? Those didn't work, either.
A moment of silence for the Andy Reid face shield, though.
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No way COVID is getting past that thing!
Oh, and who could forget the time NFL teams filled the stands with cardboard cutouts because they thought everyone's grandmas would die if actual people attended games?
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But I digress.
Regardless of vaccination status, though, any NFL player, coach or staff member who tested positive for the virus was prohibited from entering team facilities. And anyone who began to feel ill was required to self-isolate immediately.
So the NFL kept vaccinated and asymptomatic players away from the field with zero evidence to prove those individuals were a threat to anyone else.
And because of the daily testing, reported COVID infections were through the roof.
In 2020, 15 games were rescheduled because of positive COVID tests. And in 2021, the NFL moved three more games because of outbreaks at various team facilities.
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This weekend, Patrick Mahomes reportedly had a fever and spent his Saturday hooked up to an IV.
If the QB had COVID, he would have been forced to miss the game and quarantine for 10 days. But since he has a different contagious respiratory illness, he's free to get everyone else sick — while NFL Network insiders laud him for battling through "a flu game."
Trust the science!
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