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Rutgers' Peyton Powell swaps school over vaccine norm, trolled for 'zero downs'

A user tweeted about the defensive back, 'Peyton Powell spent two years at Rutgers and saw ZERO snaps. If you can’t get on the field at Rutgers...'

Rutgers football and defensive back Peyton Powell have parted ways. Powell made a tweet on Tuesday, August 24 announcing he made the decision over the university's vaccine mandates. "The University of Rutgers has made the Covid vaccine mandatory to attend school and play football, therefore I have no other choice but to enter my name into the transfer portal," he tweeted. 

Powell made a follow-up tweet within the same hour after receiving extreme backlash over the decision. Speaking of college footballers who were recently in the news, (Trigger Warning - rape) Ohio football star Crosley McEachen was charged with rape. He allegedly raped an unconscious girl at a house who woke up to find McEachen on top of her, raping her. All charges against him were dropped in August after the prosecution discovered new evidence which they wouldn't reveal to the public. 

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Some users trolled him over his decision to transfer, some picked at him for the typo he made while spelling Rutgers in his original tweet. Others pointed out the fact that the vaccine mandate at the university existed as earlier as March and that he was just waking up to it. Some poked fun at him for the fact that he didn't play at all while with the program and his stats were negligible. The DB has now entered the NCAA transfer portal after spending two years at Rutgers. 

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano had said at the start of training camp that Powell wasn't a part of the Rutgers' Scarlet Knights roster. Prior to the commencement of training camp coach Schiano said the vaccination rate within the team was higher than 90%. When asked if Powell - who was rated No. 263 nationally after coming out of high school and the 33rd-best prospect out of Texas - had made it to the Knights' roster after the training session on August 22, coach Schiano had answered in the negative. 

Powell's tweet appeared to have backfired on him as he got massively trolled on Twitter for the same. "Peyton Powell spent two years at Rutgers and saw ZERO snaps. If you can't get on the field at Rutgers..." tweeted one user. "Good luck finding a school where vaccinations aren’t the case now that it has received FDA approval. Sound like you just couldn’t compete and needed an excuse though," noted another user. "Who is Peyton Powell, and why does he think anyone in NJ will care?" read another tweet. "Looked up that Peyton Powell kid. Dude is a sophomore who’s now supposedly transferring to his 4th college program, after switching positions for the 2nd time. He has played zero downs of college football. STOP GIVING VISIBILITY TO PEONS BECAUSE THEY SAY SOMETHING STUPID," wrote another user.