Vikings assistant coach Rick Dennison would rather be unemployed than protected against the coronavirus, it appears.
Dennison essentially quit his job because of a vaccine requirement, according to ESPN. NFL coaches, scouts and front office employees — “Tier 1? workers — are not allowed on the field or in meeting rooms without being vaccinated, and they are not allowed to interact with players in person at all until getting the jab.
“Nearly all” employees in Dennison’s category are vaccinated, Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s medical director, told the Associated Press Friday.
Sills also said that about 80% of players have received at least one shot, one day after the NFL threatened teams with forfeits if they have outbreaks among unvaccinated players.
Dennison, 63, was entering his third year as Minnesota’s offensive line coach and run game coordinator. He was a Broncos linebacker in the ’80s and had been an NFL assistant since 1995.
He held the same job with the Jets for one year, under Todd Bowles in 2018. He had an acrimonious departure in New York, where the team tried to force him to quit so they didn’t have to pay out his full contract.
