Hopkins Contemplating Retirement?

COVID just won’t let us enjoy a normal NFL season. When someone like Cole Beasley is reportedly in danger of getting cut because of his anti-vaccine stance, that’s easy to take.

When a top-five stud like Hopkins tweets that he is contemplating retirement because he doesn’t want to take the vaccine, then deletes it, well, dammit.

So with drafts firing off left and right, we now have a new puzzle to deal with. The league recently announced that teams that experience COVID outbreaks in 2021 could have to forfeit games, which Hopkins is referencing in this tweet.

Tom Pelissero has tweeted out the memo in its entirety if you want to give it a read here:

Here’s more from today’s memo, which also says the team responsible for a canceled game because of an outbreak among unvaccinated players/staff will be responsible for financial losses and subject to potential discipline from the commissioner. Wow. pic.twitter.com/Q86a2WcG1K

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 22, 2021

The memo does not quantify what constitutes a “spike” or an “outbreak” that would result in a forfeit and the ensuing league and financial penalties. But one would have to assume that it would be more than just a single player.

So drafters now have to deal with at least the possibility that Hopkins hangs it up due to his opposition to the vaccine. We are already dealing with a potential market pullback and resulting economic downturn due to the Delta variant running through unvaccinated populations like the bloody flux.

If we have to also deal with losing a star player like Hopkins from our rosters due to what is likely a belief in demonstrably wrong information about the vaccine, well, Vive La France.