Jacksonville, Florida - The Jacksonville Jaguars’ first-year head coach raised eyebrows within the NFL's players union after saying that the vaccination status of his team factoring into roster decisions heading into the upcoming season.

Jaguars rookie head coach Urban Meyer (57) said the quiet part out loud. During a press conference on Tuesday, he admitted in that his players vaccination status factored into his selection.

"Everyone was considered. That was part of the production, let’s start talking about this and also, 'Is he vaccinated or not?' Can I say that that was a decision-maker? It was certainly in consideration."

However commonplace this kind of thinking may be in the league, it has remained unspoken so far, making the remarks a serious slip of the tongue.

Case in point, on Wednesday morning, the NFL Player’s Association (NFLPA), started an investigation into Meyer. NFLPA spokesman George Atallah confirmed this news to the Associated Press that same day.

Both the league and the Player’s Associated had previously agreed that teams should not make roster decisions based on a player’s vaccination status.

And while the NFL has strict Covid-19 protocols, the league hasn't issued any vaccination mandates. The league seems sympathetic to the "right" to refuse the shot – even though it introduced stiff consequences for unvaccinated players who don’t strictly follow the guidelines.

However, the union exists, in part, to ensure that their football players don’t face any kind of unfair treatment stemming and being denied a job on the team because of vaccination could fall under that umbrella.

For the sake of damage control, the Jags front office did issue a statement of their own to offset the NFLPA's activities, saying that "no player was released because of their vaccination status."

The Jags kick off their regular season on September 12, on the road against the Houston Texans.