NYC Mayor Eric Adams was quite adamant on Tuesday that vaccine mandates for sports are staying, indefinitely.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams pushed back on the notion that his administration is close to a vaccination mandate rollback and that special concessions will not be made for the city’s professional sports teams. “Right now, we’re going to take some complaints,” Adams said. “But when this is all said and done, people are going to realize this is a thoughtful administration and we got it right. So baseball, basketball, businesses, all of those things, they have to wait until that layer comes.”

Such a thoughtful guy. Keep the workplace mandates in place, along with keeping toddlers under the age of 5 masked, is quite SCIENCY! 

There will be no special concessions for sports figures. Thus, while Kyrie Irving can ATTEND games, he cannot PLAY with his team in New York City. Because of rules and reasons. Which is interesting given the fact that those same rules don’t apply to visiting teams, which is a carveout that Hizzoner de Blasio put into place. Lots of scientific hypocrisy at play here!

Yesterday Mayor Adams definitively told reporters that keeping this mandate in place is based upon logic, heart, and science.

Again, science that lets the players go to restaurants, attend games and plays, but …not play on the court or field is not science by any definition.  Because of that hypocrisy, there’ve been multiple sports figures who’ve been unamused by these mandates, as have many New Yorkers, and reporters such as Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports. 

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1503154961668059136

Suddenly, in less than twenty four hours, Mayor Eric Adams does a furious backpedal. 

Kyrie Irving and other unvaccinated athletes will be allowed to play professional sports in New York City under a major policy change Mayor Eric Adams is poised to announce Thursday, people familiar with the matter confirmed.

~Snip

On Thursday the mayor is expected to declare his decision to reverse the private-sector vaccine mandate specifically for performers and athletes in local venues, including Barclays Center — home to the Brooklyn Nets — and both Citi Field in Queens and Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

The news comes on the heels of Adams’ announcement Tuesday that he plans to lift the mask mandate for toddlers in city daycare centers on April 4.

Now, what kind of logic, heart, and science is driving this brand spanking new decision? Is it because of new guidance from the CDC? Or perhaps, with the CDC announcing their “coding error” that led them to overcount Covid deaths by nearly 75,000 (that we KNOW of), NYC Covid numbers plummeted as well? Nope, that’s not it either. 

What is driving this sudden reversal? I mean, NYC was fine with keeping unvaccinated Brooklyn Nets, the Mets and Yankee players off the field and court during home games while letting them play during away games, so what changed?

Per a Mets spokesman, the team is not commenting publicly today on the news that unvaccinated players are barred from playing home games under current NYC law.

The Yankees say that president Randy Levine is "working with City Hall and all other appropriate officials on this."

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) March 15, 2022

So why the sudden change, which will be announced today? This is a clue.

The move will cover Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, home to the Nets, as well as Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, the Mets’ Citi Field in Queens and Manhattan’s famed Madison Square Garden, home to both the Knicks and the Rangers, the source said.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is widely suspected to be unvaccinated, and the Bombers are scheduled to face off against the rival Boston Red Sox at home on April 7, the opening day of Major League Baseball’s 2022 season.

Yep, that’s it. MLB kicks off in two weeks. Baseball is a HUGE money maker for the city and when good players are benched because of an arbitrary mandate, but can play elsewhere, I can see fans staying away from the games. 

This is absolutely a political move by Eric Adams. Baseball, America’s pastime is coming back to town. Some pretty great players are benched right now, which could lead to the NYC home teams losing against their rivals. This must not stand! Therefore, the backpedal and NYC sports teams can field their unvaccinated players. 

https://twitter.com/YankeesNationCP/status/1506784049909547021

Here’s the thing about all of this. The workplace vaccine mandate isn’t entirely lifted. Oh no. It’s still going to remain in place for all the rest of the city workplace environment. Sports and Broadway have their mandate lifted, but the rest of the city does not. 

Thus, for purely political and monetary reasons, athletes and actors/dancers/musicians are now exempt, everyone else still has the mandate hammer in place. 

The sudden backpedal over the sports vaccine mandates would be somewhat humorous if it wasn’t so hypocritical. Again, this move is purely political and monetarily driven. Logic, heart, and science? Definitely not a factor here. 

Feature Photo Credit: Player basketball by Pexels via Pixabay, cropped and modified