Update on Urban Meyer vs NFLPA from Jeff Darlington

Urban Meyer made waves this week when he stated that vaccination status factored in when deciding which players to cut. While people like Charles Woodson came to his defense, the NFLPA took issue with Meyer’s comments.

In the midst of controversy, ESPN’s Jeff Darlington provided an update on the NFLPA’s gripe with Meyer.

“First of all, I can tell you I reached out to the NFLPA to find out about the investigation, I have not heard back from them yet,” Darlington said. “I can tell you that the Jaguars also have not heard from the NFLPA.

“But I can also point out this. Yesterday when the Jaguars made their releases of 24 players, only one of those 24 was unvaccinated. So they released 23 vaccinated players, and one unvaccianted – pointing to a notion that they weren’t just sitting there waiving unvaccinated players.”

While Meyer stated that vaccination status would be under consideration, it’s evidently not something that weighed too heavily on his mind.

‘Jaguars don’t appear to be steering clear of unvaccinated players’

Furthermore, Darlington provides an update on the amount of unvaccinated players Jacksonville has on their roster. 

“One more fact for you – probably not a stat that they’re necessarily proud of, but they’re in the top-five in the NFL for unvaccinated players,” said Darlington. “So pretty clear that the Jaguars don’t appear to be steering clear of unvaccinated players.

“So if Urban Meyer is saying it’s something they’re considering, perhaps it is. But it’s not necessarily something that they’re, very clearly, executing as they are making these decisions.

Obviously, a surprising revelation following Meyer being the lone head coach to be transparent about vaccination status as a consideration.

‘It was certainly in consideration’

The onset of the frustration between Meyer and the NFLPA was brought on when the former Ohio State head coach pulled the curtain back, perhaps a little too far.

“Everyone was considered,” Meyer said. “That was part of the [considerations such as] production, let’s start talking about this, and also is he vaccinated or not? Can I say that that was a decision-maker? It was certainly in consideration.”

While Meyer may not have acted on his consideration, his comments aren’t something the NFLPA is happy about. George Attalah, the assistant executive director for external affairs for the NFLPA, told ESPN via email that Meyer’s statement and corresponding moves will be investigated.

“This is a concern and we are going to look into it,” stated Atallah.

Urban Meyer was the first person in the NFL to let the cat out of the bag. Following the reaction league-wide, don’t expect many more decision makers to come forward.