Former tight end Mark Campbell: COVID-19 “kicked my ass”

[Gumbo]

Getty Images

Former NFL tight end Mark Campbell’s among the still-growing lists of Americans testing positive for COVID-19, but he thought he was going to be able to push through it as he had so many things in his career.

He quickly found out that was not the case.

Campbell told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press that he underestimated the effects of the disease.

“I played 10 years in the NFL, pretty tough, was thinking basically I’m going to grind all this out,” Campbell said. “It [expletive] kicked my ass.”

Campbell self-isolated at home when he began feeling poorly, but the shortness of breath that came with the disease led to a five-day stay in the hospital. He’s back home and quarantining now.

Now the CEO of a medical supply company, Campbell’s not sure when or where he contracted the virus, but suspects it came after a family ski trip just before the state’s stay-at-home orders.

And he admitted wondering when his wife took him to the hospital if he’d see her again.

“She turned around and she was obviously upset and I remember telling her just that I loved her,” he said. “And for the first time in my life, I remember thinking to myself, ‘Am I going to see her again?’ Now that may sound super dramatic, and I don’t want it to sound super dramatic, but that’s how I felt at the time.

“I kind of get emotional just thinking about it now, not because I feel like, oh, at the time I was threatened. Just because there’s those moments in your life that I’ll never forget that feeling. At the time, it was a hopeless feeling. I didn’t go there with hope, excited to check in. I went there, I knew I was not in good shape.”

He’s still resting at home now, but hopes his story helps a few people realize how serious the situation is. The former Bills, Browns, and Saints tight end has lost 17 pounds during the course of the illness, but has gained some perspective, and hopes more people take the warnings seriously.