An unvaccinated NFL player, irate about the league's different protocols for people inoculated against COVID-19 and those not inoculated, said Friday: "I'd rather die actually living."
Buffalo Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley, who took to Twitter on Thursday when he shared the apparent protocols agreed upon by the NFL and the NFL Players Association, returned to the social media platform Friday to respond to a user who said unvaccinated people could "kill people" or "contribute to the spread of variants."
"I just spoke to a doctor. You can still pass covid to the next individual if vaccinated," Beasley tweeted Friday afternoon. "You haven't done any research if it's based off what you read or people told you. Whether they are a scientist or not. A doctor has been wrong about my injuries before."
Beasley quickly followed with another tweet:
"Everybody is so all in on science now more than I have ever seen. What happen to God's will?"
A Twitter follower then told Beasley that he understood "the hesitation of the vaccine truly, but the idea that it's pointless is ridiculous."
"I didn't say it was pointless," Beasley tweeted back. "If you want to get it then do so. I'm not encouraging you to not get it just let me live my life regardless of if get it or not. I don't wanna die in a car wreck during the season without getting to actually live my normal life."
Beasley then posted a "Public Service Announcement" that included an image of a statement that began, "Look, I'm going to live my one life like I want to regardless."
The statement later included the line: "I May die of covid, but I'd rather die actually living."
"I'd rather take my chances with Covid and build up my immunity that way. Eat better. Drink water. Exercise and do what I think is necessary to be a healthy individual," said Beasley, who in May mocked Dr. Anthony Fauci for staying it was OK for vaccinated people to go outside without a mask.
Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the president.
On Thursday, the 32-year-old receiver shared a tweet by an NFL Network reporter who said a source had given him the COVID protocols for the 2021 season. According to a memo sent to clubs, vaccinated players were not required to undergo daily testing, or wear masks at team facilities or during team travel, or maintain social distancing with other vaccinated people at the facilities, and could interact with family and friends during team travel.
Unvaccinated people, however, are required to test every day, wear masks and remain physically distant from others. Also, they cannot leave the team hotel to eat in restaurants, or interact with anyone outside of the team's traveling party.
The memo motivated Beasley to post a series of tweets.
"This is crazy. Did we vote on this? I stay in the hotel. We still have meetings. We will all be together. Vaccinated players can go out the hotel and bring covid back in to where I am. So what does it matter if I stay in the hotel now? 100 percent immune with vaccination? No," Beasley tweeted.
"The players association is a joke. Call it something different. It's not for the players. Everyone gives me the 98 percent of people who are vaccinated don't get covid again. The odds of me getting in the NFL and playing for 10 years are lower than that and I'm here.
"So what are we really talking about? I understand completely why the NFL is doing this. It gives them back the freedom to make the most money as possible again if everyone is vaccinated. But will anyone fight for the players or nah?
"That's all. ... I don't know who I need to talk to but someone has to get it right. That's why I'm on here. Hopefully the right people will see it and at least think about how all this NFLPA stuff works. It needs to be changed."
On Friday morning, Beasley said on Twitter that he and the NFLPA had "spoken and are working through it. From what Ive been told these are guidelines for preseason and it's nothing final."
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that more than half of the NFL's players have been vaccinated.