With the recent increased positive COVID-19 cases throughout the NFL, and rising concerns surrounding the Omicron variant, playoff-hopeful NFL teams know that protecting themselves may have an advantage down the stretch and in the postseason. San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan plans to get his vaccine booster soon.
"I know we've all got to do it, everybody in Tier 1 and Tier 2," Shanahan told reporters on Wednesday. "We've got to do that, I think, by next week."
Shanahan hopes not to wait that long to get his booster, though.
"I haven't gotten mine yet, but I plan on getting it just as soon as someone brings a needle to me," Shanahan added.
However, there are no plans to make the booster a requirement for players. Instead, the 49ers coach hopes his players will make the right decision on their own.
"That's something they have to decide, just like the vaccine," Shanahan said. "It's something that you can't plan as a team. You can hope it for the team. We have all but one (player) vaccinated, so I think we did pretty good there. We'll see how the guys feel about the booster."
The 49ers currently own a 7-6 record and are entrenched in the NFC playoff picture, sitting at the sixth-seed spot right now. The team has four remaining games, starting with this weekend's home game against the Atlanta Falcons.
The vast majority of 49ers players know that being vaccinated not only benefits their families, friends, and community, but the team's hopes of playing meaningful football into January and possibly beyond. But it doesn't stop at vaccinations. Players need to be smart about how they spend their free time.
"It's really about putting the team first when you're away from the facility," quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said on Wednesday. "All those things that you do, they come back to bite you in the butt, you know, the back end. I think guys just realize what type of opportunity we have this year. I think, coming down the stretch, especially, things are starting to get pretty serious now. Just, we've got a good group of guys, and when we're all on the same page like this, it makes for a good thing."