Biden expects to take NFL up on offer to use stadiums as vaccination sites

President Biden said he expects to take the NFL up on an offer to use its 30 stadiums as mass vaccination sites during an interview that aired Sunday. 

The president told CBS’s Norah O’Donnell in the interview that aired in part ahead of the Super Bowl that he received a call from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, in which the commissioner offered the league’s 30 stadiums as potential vaccination sites.

When asked if the Biden administration will take Goodell up on the offer, Biden responded, “Absolutely, we will,” before adding, “let me put it this way, I’m gonna tell my team they’re available and I believe we’ll use them.”

SUPER BOWL INTERVIEW: Pres. Biden sits down with @NorahODonnell for his first network interview since taking office.

Pres. Biden says it’s time for “schools to reopen safely,” adding that roughly 20 million kids not being able to attend school this year “is a national emergency” pic.twitter.com/enCZsSTwHR

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) February 7, 2021

Biden’s public schedule for Monday indicates that he and Vice President Harris will virtually tour the vaccination site at State Farm Stadium in Arizona, which typically hosts the Arizona Cardinals.

Six other stadiums belonging to the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots are also already being used as vaccination sites, ESPN reported.

During his CBS interview, the president said as he entered office last month “one of the disappointments” was “the circumstances related to how the administration was handling COVID was even more dire than we thought.”

“So that’s why we’ve ramped up everywhere we can,” he said. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved two COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use, allowing more than 31.5 million to receive one or more doses of the vaccine and more than 9.1 million to receive two doses, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. 

Parts of the interview aired ahead of the Super Bowl kickoff, in which the Kansas City Chiefs faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.