The entire Boston College Eagles football team is vaccinated against COVID-19, coach Jeff Hafley said, in accordance with a school policy requiring inoculation.
One player who was set to return to the Eagles this season refused the vaccine and Hafley’s response was to help that player find a new program and transfer.
“I never gave my opinion about it,” Hafley said Thursday during ACC media day. “I just said, ‘This is the school rule. If you don’t want to get it, I’ll support you.’ We had one player who didn’t want to get it, and we helped find him a new home.”
Hafley kept that ex-Eagles player anonymous.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said this week that more than half of the league’s 14 full-time programs have already reached the suggested 85 percent mark for player vaccinations.
That 14 didn’t count Notre Dame, a part-time member for football. But like Boston College, Notre Dame is mandating that all its students be vaccinated in order to return to campus.
Hafley’s first season as Boston College’s head coach coincided with the pandemic-disrupted 2020 season. Before taking the job, Hafley was Ohio State’s secondary coach and co-defensive coordinator in 2019 and held a number of other NFL and collegiate assistant roles.
–Field Level Media