Heart ailment associated with COVID-19 hasn’t affected NFL players, source says
Reported cases of myocarditis in Big Ten remain an outlier in the world of sports
No NFL player who has had COVID-19 has been diagnosed with myocarditis, a league source says.
The heart disease causes potentially life-threatening inflammation of heart tissue.
It was diagnosed in 10 or more football players at Big Ten universities, according to The Athletic and other national U.S. sports news outlets earlier this month.
Reports at that time cited a deep concern about myocarditis as a principal medical reason the Big Ten — one of the foremost U.S. college sports conferences — cancelled all fall sports.
Just on Friday, however, reports said the Big Ten was seriously reconsidering that decision, at least for football. Leaders were said to be mulling a 2020-21 football season for winter instead of fall, beginning as early as late November.
The NFL’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, told reporters on a conference call earlier this month that all league players who contract COVID-19 are being thoroughly tested for potential serious post-coronavirus ailments or complications, such as myocarditis.
A league source on Friday told Postmedia that no player who has had COVID-19 since has been found to have myocarditis.
And how many NFL players have had the pandemic-causing virus?
Well, the NFL Players Association says on its website that 107 players (of the more than 2,800 on off-season rosters) tested positive in the spring or early summer. And from the time players began reporting for training camps in late July, through Aug. 12, player positives numbered
64, NFLPA.com says.
On Monday of this week the NFL announced that since that very day, Aug. 12, there have been zero confirmed positive tests among players.
So, in all this year, that adds up to 171 out of 2,800-plus NFL players who have had COVID-19. And not one has been left with a heart issue.
Are the reports about Big Ten myocarditis cases to be believed without league confirmation? The reporters are solid pros. The information each obtained, or was provided, is what still raises eyebrows. Let’s do some speculative math.
There could be as many as 140 Big Ten football players, including bottom roster walk-ons, on the 14 university teams. That’s somewhere approaching 2,000.
If it’s true that 10 or more have had the disease that causes heart inflammation, when practically no other college football conference or pro sports league is reporting any such cases, well, that would be one mighty concerning outlier indeed.
For the record, the Big Ten’s commissioner, Kevin Warren, has barely said a word in public since his league’s controversial cancellation of fall sports on Aug. 12. Curiously, he didn’t mention myocarditis or any heart ailment concerns.
Angered Big Ten football coaches, players and even parents of players have lobbied loud and strong for the league to overturn the cancellation. Eight University of Nebraska football players filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Big Ten in an attempt to invalidate it.
Tom Mars — a prominent lawyer who has successfully helped a few star college football players to transfer schools without having to sit out a year — has boasted on Twitter about filing access-to-information requests with all 14 universities, in hope of discovering particularly how and why the conference came to its decision.
Did one or both of these probing actions precipitate the Big Ten’s sudden fall cancellation reconsideration?
The conference already had formed a committee to investigate whether a winter or spring league might be possible, to start as early as January at indoor
NFL stadiums in the Midwest, including Ford Field in Detroit, U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
If they’re going to hold a season starting this fall, they might as well kick off in early October and conclude by mid-December in time to make the Big Ten champion eligible for the fourteam College Football Playoff beginning on New Year’s Day that determines the national champion.
NINERS
The San Francisco 49ers can’t catch a break this summer. That’s why they might struggle once the season starts in two weeks to find quality men to catch passes from Jimmy Garoppolo.
Newly signed wide receiver
J.J. Nelson will miss two to four weeks with a knee injury, per reports.
This, after the Niners lost top wideout Deebo Samuel for a couple months at least with a foot injury. Plus, rookie WR Brandon Aiyuk (hamstring) and Richie James (wrist) have missed time, and Jalen Hurd is out for the season (torn ACL).
What’s more, star tight end George Kittle has been slowed in camp with a hamstring injury.
EXTRA POINTS
Washington head coach Ron Rivera said he has a timeline for deciding on a starting quarterback between Dwayne Haskins and Kyle Allen. He didn’t share it … Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians said 43-year-old Tom Brady “had a hell of a day” in the Buccaneers’ intrasquad scrimmage on Friday ... Gayle Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints and NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, tested positive for COVID-19. She is recovering and working from home. jokryk@postmedia.com Twitter.com/JohnKryk