Unvaxxed NFL star ‘hit with $100K in fines’

NFL star Cole Beasley has been hit with a whopping $100,000 in cumulative fines for repeatedly breaching Covid protocols, according to reports. Beasley is one of the highest-profile vaccine holdouts in the league.

The Buffalo Bills wide receiver has been hit in the pocket, with league and union sources revealing to ESPN the extent to which he has been financially reprimanded.

In August, the 32-year-old was fined $14,600 when NFL officials were at the New York state franchise's facilities to review protocols – something done with all 32 outfits prior to the ongoing season – and observed him not towing the line as an unvaccinated player. 

Sources claim that this $14,600 fee has doubled on more than one occasion via video monitoring,  which another estimating that fines for Beasley have reached a total $100,000 as a separate party believes he has been made to pay just short of that sum.

Beasley was absent from the Bills' win over the New England Patriots on Sunday due to testing positive for Covid, but will still receive his $261,111 game check off a $4.7 million base salary as unvaccinated players who land on the reserve/Covid-19 list currently do in the NFL.

ESPN says that several team executives believe this is a loophole that should be reviewed for the 2022 season, yet Beasley protested on Instagram last week that he would not miss the eventual victory at Gillette Stadium due to having the disease as he felt "fine with mild symptoms". 

"Just to be clear, Covid is not keeping me out of this game. The rules are," he claimed.

"Vaxxed players are playing with Covid every week now because they don't test. One of my vaxxed teammates is in the hospital missing games," he said of Jon Feliciano. "I'm sure he didn't get this same energy."

"Thank you for those who support. Everyone else, if you don't get what's happening then there is nothing anybody can do for you," Beasley signed off.

Beasley updated fans on his condition with a selfie a couple of days before the Bills' trip to the Patriots.

With a toothless grin, he said he was "still partying".

"Be back soon. Hate it or love it. Go Bills!" he added.

His team still hasn't commented on news of his accumulated fines, but Beasley has never refrained from voicing his opinion on the NFL and NFLPA's protocols or the vaccine.

"I'm not anti or pro-vax – I'm pro-choice," he stressed back in July.

"With that being said, the issue at hand is information being withheld from players in order for a player to be swayed in a direction he may not be comfortable with."