Purdue Football Encouraging Players to get Vaccinated Ahead of 2021 Season
INDIANAPOLIS — For the 2021 football season to run smoothly, Big Ten coaches and staffs will have to combat COVID-19 cases within their programs.
During the 2021 Big Ten Football Media Days at Lucas Oil Stadium, Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said the university is equipped with on-campus vaccines and tools to educate student-athletes.
"We want to make sure our guys are educated and get all the up-to-date information to make the best decision for them," Brohm said. "We encourage all our guys to get vaccinated, so we’ve had a lot of educational sessions to provide that to them."
On Thursday, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said the conference has yet to determine complete COVID-19 policies for the upcoming season. The Big Ten chancellors and presidents voted for a decentralized process that would allow individual schools to develop their own policies.
As of now, Purdue is not requiring students to be vaccinated for the fall semester. It'll be up to each individual's discretion to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and it's something Brohm is honoring.
While the football program has done all it can to encourage its players to get vaccinated, players are not being forced to do so.
"We’ve gone as far as making sure the vaccine is provided on campus or making sure the vaccine has come over to our facility at times," Brohm said. "But it’s always a work in progress. In my opinion, it’s an individual decision. But they realize all the benefits that can happen with it, and some of the things that may happen if you don’t get it.”
Brohm and the Boilermakers have a goal to reach a 90% vaccination rate within the program by the end of the month.
“Hopefully by the end of July, we should be close to around the 90% area, and hopefully continue to improve upon that," Brohm said.
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.