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July 23, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – The National Football League released a memo on Thursday, July 22 that threatens NFL teams with punishment if their players contract the coronavirus after declining to take the vaccine.

This despite the fact that stories continue to emerge of vaccinated individuals contracting COVID-19, such as the president of Indiana University and six Texas Democrats.

“The NFL just informed clubs that if a game cannot be rescheduled during the 18-week season in 2021 due to a COVID outbreak among unvaccinated players, the team with the outbreak will FORFEIT and be credited with a loss for playoff seeding, per sources,” Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported.

Vaccinated players still have to undergo regular testing if they are asymptomatic and test positive.

“If a vaccinated person tests positive and is asymptomatic, he or she will be isolated and contact tracing will promptly occur,” the memo said. “The positive individual will be permitted to return to duty after two negative tests at least 24 hours apart and will thereafter be tested every two weeks or as directed by the medical staffs.”

Unvaccinated players can also be quarantined simply for being exposed to someone who is infected.

Players who have chosen not to take the experimental jab “will be isolated for a period of 10 days and will then be permitted to return to duty if asymptomatic. Unvaccinated individuals will continue to be subject to a five-day quarantine period if they have close contact with an infected individual.”

NFL players looking for support from their union to represent them will be disappointed.

In a memo to its members, the National Football League Players Association said, “[W]e remind you that the same basic rules applied last year. If games were missed because of a COVID-19 outbreak, nobody would have gotten paid.” 

It said the main difference is that vaccines are now available and the NFL will punish “clubs which are responsible for the outbreak.”

The announcement has led at least one top NFL player, DeAndre Hopkins of the Arizona Cardinals, to float the idea of not playing. Hopkins had the third-most receiving yards of any player during the 2020 season.

“Never thought I would say this, But [sic] being put in a position to hurt my team because I don’t want to partake in the vaccine is making me question my future in the Nfl,” Hopkins wrote July 22 in a since-deleted tweet.

Read the full memo here.