The National Football League has canceled Grammy winner Victory Boyd’s National Anthem performance over her vaccination status.
Boyd refused to take the coronavirus vaccine citing religious reasons, according to reports.
She will not receive $20,000 the NFL pays for performing the National Anthem.
In an email to Boyd’s father and manager, John Boyd, obtained by The Epoch Times, NFL Senior Director for Media and Entertainment Events Seth Dudowsky said that her refusal to get the vaccine made her ineligible to perform the National Anthem.
“As I understand that Victory will not be fully vaccinated by the time of the Kickoff game, she would not have been able to comply with the terms of the Game Day Field Access Policy. And as a result, we, unfortunately, will not be able to invite Victoria to perform the national anthem at this year’s Kickoff game.”
In the email, Dudowsky repeated the NFL’s policy that all “individuals accessing the playing field and surrounding sideline areas” be fully vaccinated.
“Under the Policy, ‘fully vaccinated’ means 14 days have passed since the individual received the final dose required in the vaccine sequence, in accordance with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This requirement is mandatory and fully complies with the laws applicable to the type of business relationship contemplated here, and we are not in a position to make an exception.”
The NFL does not have a vaccine mandate in place for players.
Players who refuse the vaccine must submit a negative coronavirus test prior to playing. Players who have previously been infected with the virus – and are assumed to have natural immunity – will be considered fully vaccinated only after they had one dose of the vaccine.
Critics of vaccine mandates are concerned that Black people will be discriminated against since 70% of Blacks are unvaccinated.
Black people are wary of government vaccine programs due to a history of medical abuses in the Black community.
Boyd, who is Black, was scheduled to perform the National Anthem when the Tampa Buccaneers host the Dallas Cowboys in the 2021 NFL Kickoff Game in an open-air stadium in Tampa Bay on Thursday, Sept. 9.
Boyd would have performed on the field in the open air, far away from spectators.
She told the Epoch Times that she will continue to refuse the vaccine for religious reasons.
“The Bible admonishes Christians to appreciate their bodies as being sacred and a temple of the Holy Spirit and to not participate in things that can defile the body or render the body dysfunctional.
“I am in prayer to make sure that the Lord guides me into the right decision concerning receiving an unproven injection with artificial properties that can potentially have a longterm effect on my reproductive health.”
Boyd previously performed the National Anthem before a Monday Night Football game at MetLife Stadium on November 4, 2019 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Watch her performance below.
