All the NFL’s football stadiums across the country are available to become public vaccination sites, the NFL told President Joe Biden’s administration Friday.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made the announcement in a Friday letter addressed to Biden, obtained first by Axios. Seven NFL stadiums are already in use as mass vaccination sites, according to the league. Biden’s administration is seeking to distribute 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office, with long term plans to have more than 300 million Americans fully vaccinated by the end of summer.
“Each NFL team will make its stadium available for mass vaccinations of the general public in coordination with local, state and federal health officials,” the letter read. “We look forward to further discussion with your administration as well as your partners in state and local governments to advance this effort.” (RELATED: Joe Biden Holds First Call With Vladimir Putin, Presses On Hacking Attacks, Navalny Arrest)
President Joe Biden speaks about foreign policy at the State Department in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
The NFL has also chosen to honor the nation’s healthcare workers by inviting 7,500 vaccinated healthcare workers to attend Sunday’s game in Tampa Bay, Florida. The NFL’s season was arguably the most successful of any sport to attempt one during the pandemic, playing all 256 games without a single cancellation.
“There’s so many people that had to work together to get this done,” Goodell told reporters Thursday. “There were doubters. Obviously, there were people that didn’t believe we could do it. Obviously, we had a lot of unknowns. But we believed that staying on schedule and working toward trying to get to 256 games done — as we sort of say shorthand, avoid the asterisk. I think we were able to do that, but we’ve still got a few days left here, so we’re focused on making sure we finish out strong.”
Biden will travel to his Delaware home to enjoy the Super Bowl with his family on Sunday. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to comment on who he would be rooting for, but confirmed there was division on the topic among top White House staffers.