Jerry Jones wants cowboys to reach 85 percent vaccination rate

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OXNARD, CA – Jerry Jones owns the most valuable sports franchise in world history, which is located deep within a country with red political leanings. Some of the Dallas Cowboys owner’s closest allies have been blamed for deeply entrenching policies in a pandemic that has killed nearly 625,000 people (and more) in the United States. However, when it comes to the ongoing vaccination culture war against COVID-19, Jones has continued to lean deeply into the one camp that best represents his interests.

Believes in getting the shot. If only for the money and the normal situation on the other side of it.

As one of the NFL’s standout team owners, he still seems to be taking all his privilege with him, even if it took every last minute of this pre-season to make it happen. Pfizer and Moderna may not be able to win the Super Bowl or sell 100,000 seats at AT&T Stadium, but Jerry Jones knows these two pharmaceutical giants can get a little closer to these two assistants.

So when you hear Jones say he’s got his team “in the pipeline” to be the league’s leader in vaccination rate, you have to realize that this is Jerry doubling the business and mitigating any further complications of winning. This is Jerry’s side in this vaccination culture war. It’s not about right or wrong or partisan platforms. It’s more about financial green than the political red and blue. It is about pragmatism rather than patriotism. Which is great for the NFL, who should quietly wish they had a club owner like Jones in every town now — obsessed with more wins, more wins, and willing to adapt to whatever makes that happen.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sees the competitive advantage of vaccinating his Cowboys players. (Catelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)

That’s why you can believe Jones and his son Stephen, who said during their training camp start press conference on Wednesday that Dallas will eventually meet and cross the NFL’s 85 percent vaccination line to ease off-season COVID protocols. It enhances the company’s bottom line and avoids giving up an inappropriate advantage in the upcoming season. It’s as simple as being good for business – which is the aspect Jones will vote for 99 times out of 100 (and the 100th time only because Jerry was in the shower).

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As much as league owners and other NFL team owners might talk about the health and safety implications of coronavirus and vaccination, Jones presents the message that truly matters to all of the billionaires in his field. The epidemic scared Jerry as a businessman. Just like everyone in the franchise freaked out because he was completely out of the NFL’s control. And as all team owners know, the pandemic may have represented a black swan event to end the league’s long grip on American sports.

If Jerry Jones explains anything on Wednesday, it’s that he has been unsettled by the disruption COVID caused to the NFL and his team last season. So much so that he choked several times during Wednesday’s opening press conference and then admitted it was because he wasn’t sure that life would return to normal.

Dogon, as much as I enjoy these things, I think, ‘Well, are you going to see that again? Are you going to sit there and talk to everyone again at the same time? Jones said, his voice breaking for a moment. “I guess I won’t apologize, but today I am sensitive and emotional about the entire show. … Not getting out of here is going to kill me. It is just going to kill me.”

booster vaccination

There is some revealing simplicity in this statement and how it relates to what the NFL is trying to achieve with vaccinations. The league is trying to get back to work. Now, the path to that goal is as straight and directed as the needles that deliver vaccines to make it happen. And while the league cannot force players to be vaccinated, it can create an environment to encourage this to happen. This is where COVID protocols come in. They are protocols meant to ostracize, separate and pressure unvaccinated players to take the shot. Either that, breaking away from the team in various ways during the season, or risking becoming an unprotected pariah if a positive COVID case strikes at an inopportune time (as in many other sports).

People can make their own judgments about whether this is the right way. They can’t deny whether it’s effective in the NFL because it seems very likely that the vast majority of the league will be vaccinated when the season begins. Given that each team will have 53 players on the active roster and 12 players on the coaching staff, it’s significant that the NFL could have a whopping 2,080 players fully vaccinated at a time when half of the United States isn’t either.

Of course, this does not mean that there will be no controversy. There will be players who have become more like lightning rods in the debate, such as former Cowboy and current widely publicized Valo Bills Cole Beasley, who has repeatedly refused to vaccinate and taken to social media to argue about it. Or former players like Michael Irvine, who suggested a very clear relationship between vaccination and a player’s willingness to do whatever it takes to win.

“If you are not one of the difference between them [at the vaccination threshold]Are you really thinking of winning a championship? ‘ Irvin asked out loud on ESPN. ‘You see what I’m saying. Well, if you are not vaccinated now and you have all these other teams being vaccinated. …someone in that locker room [should say], “Hey man, we’ll have a chance, have you been vaccinated?” Let’s go through this because this could be a couple of weeks of healthy missing games, and in this league, this is not the NBA. In this league it could be that for you. The right person misses two weeks, that’s it. Your ass is out.”

It was a message that bore a resemblance to that sent by quarterback Baker Mayfield at the Cleveland Browns on Wednesday, who frankly told reporters that teams with higher vaccination rates outperformed teams with lower rates.

“It’s a competitive advantage, but it’s also so much more than that,” Mayfield told reporters. “It is only about the safety, public health and well-being of human life.”

It’s worth noting that when Jones was asked about Irvine’s comments about vaccination as a sign of readiness to win, Jones admired Irvine’s commitment as a player and finally settled on calling it a “highlight message”.

This is very close to a minimal declaration as you will see from an NFL team owner who is not supposed to authorize his players to vaccinate them. The message is there and Jones certainly isn’t the only one eager to say it.

The NFL’s revenue was taken a huge hit by the pandemic in 2020, and now a handful of drug companies have given the league a weapon to defend themselves. That’s what Jerry Jones and franchisees care about. That’s why they want to vaccinate players. To get their financial energy back on its feet and on track to achieve the $25 billion in annual revenue that seemed within reach before the pandemic was declared.

All in the name of personal financial gain and a proud team achievement – an injection of a shot that Jerry Jones has been chasing for decades.

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