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