Washington Football Team defensive end Montez Sweat is dealing with an illness and did not travel with the team to New England for their preseason opener against the Patriots, according to Ben Standing The Athletic. Sweat’s illness is believed to be unrelated to COVID-19.
Sweat’s participation in Thursday’s game in Foxborough, Massachusetts probably would have been limited anyways. He’s one-half of Washington’s dynamic duo edge rushers alongside 2020 Defensive Rookie of the Year Chase Young.
However, Sweat and Washington have garnered attention over COVID-19 vaccination. Washington entered training camp three weeks ago as the lowest-vaccinated team in the NFL among players. That’s despite the coaching staff bringing in medical experts to educate and address concerns of the vaccination in June.
Then, Sweat was most vocal against the team’s approach. He also made it clear he wasn’t going to get vaccinated.
Since Washington has had as many as seven players placed on the reserved/COVID-19 list. Still, Montez Sweat has maintained he is against getting vaccinated.
Yet, the team is trending in towards getting vaccinated. According to Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post, 86% of Washington’s players have had at least one shot of the vaccination, including 59.3% who are fully vaccinated. Currently, 80.8% of the players around the league are fully vaccinated.
