Bills' Cole Beasley is Misinformed and Just Plain Wrong About the COVID-19 Vaccine

The wide receiver lashed out at the NFLPA because he won't be afforded the freedoms vaccinated NFL players will enjoy this coming season.

Cole Beasley is a fantastic football player and, by all accounts, a wonderful teammate who sucked it up and played through a major injury when the Buffalo Bills needed him in the playoffs last season.

But he is terribly misinformed and unreasonably paranoid about the COVID-19 vaccines that nearly 200 million Americans, including just about every prominent political leader, Republican and Democrat alike, have already received without being magnetized or radiating a 5G signal or growing a third arm.

Beasley has every right to decline the vaccine for whatever reasons he sees fit. Because this is America.

But where he makes a fool of himself is his reaction to the sensible rules put in place to protect those who have taken the necessary steps proven by science to protect themselves. He has to be made to understand that the rules put in place aren't nearly as unreasonable as his reasons for not getting the shot(s).

The rules are the rules, and when he insinuates on Twitter that the players didn't vote for the restrictive rules that unvaccinated players must follow, he needs to go back and check how things work in the real world before lashing out at a union that's the only thing keeping him from being unemployed.

The NFL and NFLPA have agreed to updated COVID-19 protocols for 2021 training camp and preseason, per source.

How different will life by for vaccinated and unvaccinated players? From the memo that just went to clubs: pic.twitter.com/8yMPW0JBWZ

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 16, 2021

Players who are not vaccinated will have to be tested every day, won't be able to eat with their teammates, must wear a mask at all times inside the team facility and remain socially distant from others.

But at least they will be allowed to practice and play and ... get paid.

That's important to note because if the NFL had its way, unvaccinated players wouldn't play and most certainly wouldn't be paid.

Period.

On top of that, he's flat-out wrong about the process of making the rules. The NFLPA is represented by players on every team who came together to approve these measures.

Yet Beasley insists "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."

As if him beating the odds of becoming an NFL player has anything to do with the price of tea in China.

The COVID-19 vaccine issue has been a hot-button topic around the league, particularly with the Bills because of the stances of prominent players like Beasley, safety Jordan Poyer and quarterback Josh Allen, who last time anyone checked said he still didn't have enough information on it to decide whether the vaccine was for him.

Hey, his words.

The players before coming to mandatory minicamp this week seemed to come to an understanding that they would all respect each other's decisions, seemingly putting the issue to bed.

Until Beasley went poking it with a stick on Thursday.

Wonder how his vaccinated teammates feel now.

Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro.