TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians has been extremely vocal this preseason, insisting every player on his team should be vaccinated to protect themselves against COVID-19.
He has continuously shared an approximate percentage of the players who did receive the vaccine. However, he is likely to press pause on that habit following his press conference on Thursday.
Arians confirmed every player and every member of the coaching staff is fully vaccinated.
Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette, who posted a tweet earlier this summer indicating he didn’t want the vaccine, shared why he decided to get it.
“I just prayed on it. You know what I mean? So whatever happens happens,” said Fournette. “I am just trying to be the best teammate I can be.”
He added he feels his team needs to be at full strength to be successful this season.
“People are still catching it but it makes it a lot better that I have the shot and don’t cause other things on the team,” he said, “because we need every hand in here for these next couple of big games we got coming up especially for this opener.”
Unfortunately, this development has not prevented players like Ryan Succop from landing on the reserve/COVID-19 list. He actually returned to practice on Thursday after testing positive for the virus more than one week ago.
The Bucs are not the first NFL team to hit the 100% threshold. The Atlanta Falcons became the first fully-vaccinated team last month.