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So it turns out Antonio Brown taught us a few things last week.

First, vaccination cards are nowhere near the foolproof passport that we treat them to be.

Second, if someone's determined to refuse a mandate to get a shot, obtaining some slick documentation to evade it isn't that hard.

Third, and this was the detail that really undercut Brown and two of his Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates in the NFL's investigation.

Eliminating loose strings in your story goes a long way toward misrepresenting your vaccination status.

And finally, aside from cases of egregious forgery, the federal government isn't kicking indoors over individuals attempting to dupe corporations like the NFL.

Add all of that up and it points to one reality.

For the most part, vaccine cards are an honor system.

And if you're absolutely determined to circumvent it, all it really takes is some effort and smarts.

Consider what ultimately got Brown and two other players, Buccaneer Safety Mike Edwards and Free Agent Whiteout, John Franklin III, pinched by the NFL.

After months of going undetected, it took a sour business relationship between Brown and his personal chef,

and a news report to put three quote-unquote misrepresented vaccination cards onto the league's radar screen.

I use the word misrepresented in quotes because there's a whole interesting angle to that word, and we'll come back to that in a moment.

But first, back to that report by the Tampa Bay Times, which despite coming from an extremely reputable long-time beat reporter in Rick Stroud,

was still summarily dismissed out of hand by Buccaneer's coach Bruce Arianz almost immediately.

That kind of thing doesn't happen unless a team has been completely duped by both a very legitimate looking piece of documentation,

and also its own incomplete, or I guess you could say maybe even incompetent, analysis of vaccinations that didn't take place in the team's own facility.

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