The NFL was among the six professional sports leagues that participated, along with the league players’ unions, in a study that today revealed that five professional athletes developed heart problems after a positive test for COVID-19.
The study, published today, identified 789 professional athletes from the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL and MLS who tested positive for COVID-19. Three of them developed myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, and two developed pericarditis, or inflammation of the tissue around the heart.
The five athletes were not identified, but one was Bill’s tight end, Tommy Sweeney, who tested positive for COVID-19 in October and was dropped for the myocarditis season in November. Another was Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, who missed the entire MLB 2020 season after being diagnosed with myocarditis, but is participating in spring training this year.
Gary Green, the medical director of the MLB and one of the study’s authors, told the Washington Post that the fact that only five athletes in the six professional leagues have heart disease indicates that the risk is “very, very low”.