The NFL has informed teams they could potentially forfeit a game because of a COVID-19 outbreak among non-vaccinated players, and players on both teams wouldn’t get paid that week.
Commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday the league doesn’t anticipate adding a 19th week to accommodate games that can’t be rescheduled within 18-week regular season.
However, forfeits are among the consequences.
“If a game can’t be rescheduled and is cancelled due to a COVID outbreak among non-vaccinated players on one of the competing teams, the team with the outbreak will forfeit and will be deemed to have played 16 games for purposes of draft, waiver priority, etc,” Goodell says in the memo.
For purposes of playoff seeding, the forfeiting team will be credited with a loss and the other team will be credited with a win.
The league says more than half its teams have COVID-19 vaccination rates greater than 80 per cent of their players, and more than 75 per cent of players are in the process of being vaccinated.