Every NFL team will offer their stadiums as a mass vaccination site to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic, league Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a letter to President Joe Biden.
The move would expand an effort that currently includes seven teams, including Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins.
Each team "will make its stadium available for mass vaccinations of the general public in coordination with local, state, and federal health officials," Goodell wrote in the letter, which was sent Thursday. The effort would be helped, he said, by the experience the teams already have with transforming parts of their facilities into coronavirus testing sites.
The NFL has 32 teams, but the offer comprises 30 stadiums, because pairs of teams share facilities in both New York and Los Angeles.
Other sports have taken similar actions. Last month, the Los Angeles Dodgers converted their stadium from a mass coronavirus testing site into a vaccination center. And on Friday, the New York Yankees opened a vaccination site at their stadium in the Bronx. A similar plan for the New York Mets' stadium has been stalled by a shortage of available vaccine doses, as the Gothamist website reports.
Some colleges have also made their stadiums available for use as vaccination sites, including the University of Michigan and the University of Kentucky. When reached for comment on Friday, the NCAA said that such decisions are up to each college.
Including Sunday's Super Bowl, the NFL celebrated making it through all regular season and postseason games without any cancellations, although health and safety protocols forced a number of games to be rescheduled. Early in the season, the league also called off its Pro Bowl all-star game, which has no bearing on team standings.
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