In the upcoming National Football League seasons, teams that cannot field players due to a coronavirus outbreak will not be able to reschedule games and will be forced to forfeit the game, the league told teams in a memo, CNN reports.

The rule encourages teams to push coaches, players and staff to get vaccinated for fear of missing practices, games and paychecks.  It costs millions of dollars for the league to reschedule games, as it did 18 times in the last season.  One game, between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, was rescheduled to a Wednesday game, the first time in modern history when an NFL game was played midweek.

“If a game cannot be rescheduled within the current 18-week schedule and is cancelled due to a Covid outbreak among non-vaccinated players on one of the competing teams, the club with the outbreak will forfeit the contest and will be deemed to have played 16 games for purposes of draft, waiver priority, etc. For the purposes of playoff seeding, the forfeiting team will be credited with a loss and the other team will be credited with a win,” the NFL memo sent Thursday states.

The NFL also announced that if a team reaches 85% vaccination for players and staff, it can relax current coronavirus protocols put in place to minimize unnecessary contact.  The league reported that 78% of players have reported receiving at least one vaccination shot.

All teams have more than 50% of their players and staff fully vaccinated, with 14 of the league’s 32 teams already above 85% threshold set by the league.