Heart illness looming over college sports
UH football player opts out over COVID-linked disease
Any other year and University of Houston defensive lineman Sedrick Williams would be in the middle of summer workouts in preparation for the upcoming college football season.
Instead, he will sit out the season after a positive test for COVID-19 and a concern for one of the virus’ side effects — myocarditis, a heart condition that if left untreated can cause heart damage or sudden cardiac arrest.
“As a result of the virus, I’ve had complications with my heart and I really don’t know the outcome or what’s in store for me in the future,” Williams wrote in an Aug. 8 post on Facebook. “I just know that my life is more precious to me than football could ever be.”
As colleges from coast to coast weigh scientific data and opinions on whether it’s safe to play sports this fall, concern over the viral-triggered heart condition has grown. Myocarditis essentially is an inflammation of the heart muscle that weakens the organ.
There is significant enough concern that the Big Ten and Pac-12 — two of the largest conferences in college football’s top tier — canceled all fall sports, an unprecedented move that will leave college destinations from Eugene, Ore., Boulder, Colo., and Tucson, Ariz., to Ann Arbor, Mich., Columbus, Ohio, and Lincoln, Neb., virtual ghost towns on Saturday afternoons this fall.
Some of the challenges for return-toplay have been at the forefront since COVID-19 shut down the sports world in midMarch: How do universities test (and in some cases afford testing for) a large group of athletes? When will a vaccine become available? What happens when positive cases inevitably occur? How will teams safely navigate significantly smaller crowds in some of college football’s largest cathedrals?
“I think we are playing with fire,” Dr. Colleen Kraft, a member of the NCAA’s COVID-19 advisory panel, said recently. “I think one case of myocarditis in an athlete is too many.”
Dr. Brian Hairline, the NCAA’s chief medical officer, said 1 to 2 percent of athletes at NCAA schools who have been tested have been positive for COVID-19.
There is not enough data to show how prevalent myocarditis is in athletes who have contracted the coronavirus, many of whom are between 18 and 22 years old, but some studies suggest that about 20 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients have encountered some sort of cardiac injury, including myocarditis.
It is believed that between 5 to 22 percent of all
cases of sudden cardiac death in young adults are due to myocarditis, according to the Kingwood-based Myocarditis Foundation. The condition results in approximately 75 deaths per year of athletes ages 13 to 25.
The danger, medical experts say, comes when athletes do not even realize they have developed myocarditis without proper screening.
“We need to focus on what’s important,” Carlos Del Rio, a member of the NCAA’s COVID-19 advisory panel, said on a recent webinar hosted by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “What’s important right now is we need to control this virus. Not having fall sports this year in controlling this virus would be to me the No. 1 priority.”
As of Wednesday, COVID-19 has killed more than 172,000 people in the U.S.
Williams, a junior from
Houma, La., said he had been leaning toward opting out this season when he heard the tragic plight of Michael Ojo, a former Florida State basketball player who had tested positive for COVID-19, recovered and weeks later collapsed and died during practice with his professional team in Serbia on Aug. 7. Williams was not available for additional comment.
“I’ve had my mind made up for a (minute) now, but hearing this story made it even easier,” Williams wrote about Ojo.
Other athletes have served as cautionary tales. Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez will miss this season after being diagnosed with myocarditis, which is believed to be due to his bout with COVID-19. Williams is among those known UH athletes to test positive for COVID-19 this summer. Citing privacy
laws, UH officials have not provided any updates since announcing six symptomatic cases in early June.
CBS Sports reported that “eye-opening” information on myocarditis has been part of the discussion for canceling fall football. At least 15 athletes in the Big Ten were diagnosed with myocarditis, according to ESPN, among them Indiana freshman offensive lineman Brady Feeney. His mother, Deborah Rucker, gained national attention after a Facebook post in early August detailed her son’s “14 days of hell battling the horrible virus” that led to breathing problems serious enough for a trip to the hospital.
“Bottom line, even if your son’s schools do everything right to protect them, they CAN’T PROTECT THEM!!” she wrote.
Concerns about how to safely return to play have left a divide, with the Big
Ten and Pac-12 taking a cautious approach, while the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Big 12, American Athletic, Conference USA and Sun Belt conferences announced plans to play this fall. UH plays in the American Athletic Conference, while Rice is a member of Conference USA.
“We just believed, collectively, there’s too much uncertainty,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said about the decision not to play in the fall, without specific mention of myocarditis.
Recently, the NCAA updated guidance on how schools should screen for myocarditis. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby cited “growing evidence” about myocarditis as he announced a revised testing protocol that includes an EKG, echocardiogram, a cardiac MRI and a troponin blood test, which can identify elevated protein markers in the blood that may signal a heart attack.
At the University of Houston, all incoming freshmen or transfer athletes undergo an EKG, while any player who has a positive COVID-19 test must go through screening that includes an EKG and blood work before they’re cleared to return to workouts, an athletic spokesman said.
Once myocarditis is verified, athletes are suggested to stop sports for at least six months, according to the Myocarditis Foundation.
Williams, a transfer from Kilgore Junior College, expects to play for UH next season.
“I won’t take this year for granted,” Williams wrote. “I’m coming back bigger, faster and stronger than ever.”