NFL to issue $14K fines if unvaccinated players violate COVID-19 measures

The NFL will issue $14,650 fines if unvaccinated players violate coronavirus measures, according to a report from ESPN.

The news came Saturday after Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coach Bruce Arians told The Tampa Bay Times that players would be fined $14,000 on the spot every time they break protocol.

Arians said he doesn’t “like” levying fines, but he wasn’t “going to tell anybody to get a mask on.”

“I don’t like fining players, but I’m not going to tell anybody to get a mask on. They’ll just get automatically hit with $14,000,” Arians told the newspaper.

It was unclear if Arians meant he would levy the fines himself, or if it was league policy. Asked by ESPN, Arians said via text “NFL policy,” adding “League rules.”

Brian McCarthy, a spokesperson for the NFL, told ESPN that Arians “was correct” regarding his understanding of the rules.

The Hill has reached out to the NFL for more information regarding the fines. 

The news comes after the NFL told teams on Thursday that they could be forced to forfeit games if they cannot play due to outbreaks among unvaccinated players.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a memo that players on both teams would lose earnings, and that he “retains the authority to impose additional sanctions, particularly if the Covid outbreak is reasonably determined to be the result of a failure by club personnel to follow applicable protocols.”

The Associated Press reported on Friday that 80 percent of NFL players are in the process of getting vaccinated, and nine teams have 90 percent of players in the process.