With The Flyers’ COVID Protocol List Mounting, Should The NHL Be Allowed To Force Vaccinations When The Time Arises?

The Flyers’ (along with other teams) COVID Protocol list mounting, should they be allowed to force vaccinations? This is a question being contemplated – not only by league officials and organizations alike right now- but by employers around the globe. Sure, the NHL put in place the “Taxi Squads” to allow teams to carry extra players for not if, but when, positive cases showed up, but I do not think that they ever thought it would get this bad. To counter act this, as early as last week the league has taken efforts to reduce the cases of COVID within their ranks by implementing point-of-care rapid testing to be done on game days and by placing a work/home quarantine on its teams and staff. This would require them to stay home unless traveling to and from games or practices. Additionally, they placed strong emphasis on recommendations on things like grocery delivery and all-online/remote learning for their kids; but is this still enough?  

As of right now the Flyers alone have Oskar Lindblom, Scott Laughton, Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Morgan Frost, Justin Braun, and Travis Sanheim all placed on the COVID Protocol list. With defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere already being on it and subsequently cleared earlier in the season. Philadelphia, like so many other teams around the league, has had to postpone games due to the latest outbreak in their locker room. They could press on and insert the taxi squad members in the lineup and continue to play but with more and more names getting added to the list daily they may just be taking the chance of infecting more players. This is especially concerning, seeing as how the team does not know how many more might have contracted the virus due to its incubation period. All of this raises the question: Might the league now be biting off more than it can chew? 

Nobody wants to see the NHL and other leagues around the world take another extended break but at what point will the theory of “keep calm and carry on” begin to be considered doing their players a disservice health wise? Sure, they are athletes and in the best shape of their lives, but I think we all know (or at least have heard of) someone in good shape close to us that contracted the virus and was unexpectedly brought to their knees by it; having to be hospitalized or even put on a ventilator just to be able to survive. Much is still not understood about this new virus that has altered life as we know it.  I for one know of a friend that I work with that is in his late twenties (who played college football and can still bench press a ton) and he contracted the virus through work as an essential employee and was hospitalized for months. He was forced to be intubated and relied on a ventilator to live. He still- to this day- is not 100% recovered from having caught it (months ago) and still gets easily winded. So yes, this virus may prey on the weak and those who have a preexisting condition, but it also on the rare occasion attacks the strong as well. The NHL has been lucky so far seeing that none of its players who have caught the virus have had to be hospitalized, vented, or worse to my knowledge. But what happens when one does? Would the teams and or the league be then held responsible? Should they then have the right to force their players to get vaccinated to stop this from happening?  They are their employer and are trying to protect their million(s)-dollar assets.

Many people are still very skeptical about the new vaccines seeing that they have been produced and pushed out in record time. A normal vaccine usually takes a number of years to develop. Then, once it is created, it has to go through a large number of tests or clinical trials to make sure it’s safe for use on humans.  The current COVID-19 vaccine has been through- and passed- clinical trials but is perceived as lacking depth in long-term data. While some are choosing to trust science regardless as they feel the benefits outweigh any risks and have already taken the vaccine when they were offered it, others still have many questions regarding the rapidly produced immunization. For example:  Is it safe, or are the big drug companies trying to hurry up and be the first to profit from this? What are the long-term effects? What are the side effects that may occur immediately after if/when I take it? To which whatever side of the argument you may be on yourself you have to admit the other does have a point. 

For these reasons if and when the NHL (and/or the other major leagues) do decide to try and force vacations on their players would it be considered taking away from the elderly or people that have been waiting patiently for their turn to be offered to take it? The NHL cannot honestly think that their players should be labeled as essential (as many of us would like to think they are) to push the issue, right?       

Then what are their other choices to slow the spread- if you will? Should the players be forced to wear a mask? Young players in USA Hockey programs and/or those playing pickup in many rinks around the United States right now are being forced to. These are all valid questions that I am just raising, not offering solutions to. 

If I were to speculate, what it might come down to though is that the players will have the choice to take the vaccine or not (when it is made available to them), under a few conditions. If a player does not decide to get the immunization, then they could be made to sign a waiver that would allow the players’ team and the league to be exempt from any future legal action or liability if that player contracts the virus. Furthermore, if that player does not decide to take the vaccine and contracts the virus, that player could be then placed under a more intense investigation as to how they might have contracted it and, if found to be personally irresponsible, then larger fines should be enforced (like what happened to members of the Washington Capitals when it was found that they had been out to the club partying with no mask on, just to have a few of those players pop positive during testing sessions a few days later).  In order for something like this to pass it will, of course, need to be agreed upon by the players association as well. Which hopefully should not be that hard to do because all involved don’t want to see yet another pause from hockey being played.     

Thoughts? Let’s talk.