The effect on the game of the latest wave of COVID-19 is so extensive and intense that the brain becomes numb.
The industry insists it continues. Most of us need it differently.
Coaches, players and staff do not play; postponements destroy NHL and NBA schedules; school football’s already largely superfluous bowling season is marked by cancellations and fears of more; and the erosion of game quality in the sacrosanct NFL is an issue that no one needs to address, in fact, not among its broadcast partners.
On Thursday at VMAC, the curtain of numbers and numbness was lifted to reveal a familiar face in a position to share a story that brings home the non-public consequences of confusion.
Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett, soft-spoken yet voluble and mostly filter-free, explained what his pro-athlete life was like for about 10 days after his positive diagnosis Dec. 16.
The omicron variant is characterized by some as little more than sobs. Lockett, who is vaccinated, like almost all of his peers, disagrees.
“It’s very exhausting,” he told reporters via video conference. “I may move a little bit. My throat hurts. I had chills. My chest hurt. I’m very, very anxious. My brain wanders just because I’m probably thinking too much. “I vomited. I vomited several times on the first day, but only once afterwards. I just had no energy, so I ate a little. I think I lost about 8 pounds.
Lockett allowed Sunday’s game to play against the oppressed Bears, who stunned the Seahawks, 25-24, in what coach Pete Carroll called “perhaps the worst loss” of his 12 years in office. six times and put in 3 balls for 30 yards. He had a clever explanation of why his production declined.
“I was tired and exhausted,” he said. I don’t need to say I had trouble breathing, but I couldn’t breathe absolutely the way I needed. Do you know how you can get that big air? Sometimes I’ve had it, I haven’t, it was very unfortunate. I was out for a total week.
Lockett was forced to sit out the previous week’s pivotal 20-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, who held the Seahawks to a single touchdown drive, three third-down conversions and 214 yards of offense, while double-covering the Seahawks’ only other proven wideout, DK Metcalf.
All Lockett could do was get tested daily and hope for a negative result.
“I think if anything, that’s what hurts your mental,” he said. “It was one thing to be tested positive on Thursday, but then to be positive again Friday, and be positive again Saturday, and then be positive again Sunday, and Monday and then Tuesday. That’s the hard part.
“Every day you build yourself, to come back the next day. In the same boat to say, “Brother, will I ever come out of it?”»
In addition to the effect of his absence on his teammates, he saw how some in the audience took him, at least on social media, and became angry.
“When you’ve treated covid-19 symptoms and noticed how you’ve fared, it’s like we don’t really know how others will do,” he said. I see other people say, “Is Tyler going to play? I want him to help my fantasy (team). “
“I’m just trying to make it through this . . . if you actually get it, or people in your family go through it, you see how detrimental it is. You see how people do die from this stuff. That’s why I said for me, it’s unfortunate that I couldn’t play. But I’m also thankful that I was able to still be here and still enjoy my life.”
Lockett, one of 11 Seahawks who have been sidelined in this outbreak (eight have returned), wasn’t the only seattle professional athlete to tell his covid story. Kraken ahead Colin Blackwell missed 11 days after testing positive and entering the NHL protocol on Dec . 8.
“Unfortunately, I’ve been hit quite hard by COVID,” Blackwell told the Seattle Times on Monday. “I probably had five days of very severe symptoms.
“I didn’t touch a weight or exercise. I had a hard time doing laundry. It was bad enough to be absolutely fair to you. So I didn’t do anything. “
The debilitations in sports are a high-profile but small part of the breakout of the omicron variant nationally and globally that is killing the unvaccinated and breaking through to sicken some of the vaccinated. More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of covid in the U.S. have soared to the highest level on record at more than 265,000 per day on average.
Although the mortality rate with omicron is lower, the surge again is overwhelming heath-care providers, including front-line testers. The University of Washington’s vast health-care system announced Thursday that it will soon limit testing appointments at its community stations to include only those with symptoms and known exposures. An “astronomically high” positivity rate is slowing the testing process. Via the Seattle Times, the positivity rate has reached more than 40 percent at south King County testing sites.
Since forecasting an end to a virus wave isn’t realistic, the pro sports leagues are seeking to muddle through. The CDC’s recommendation Monday to permit shortening the quarantine period from 10 days to five was eagerly adopted by the leagues, which are able to get players back to the the action more quickly.
But even if the CDC change had happened before the Rams game, it wouldn’t have helped Lockett.
“I feel like with the new rule, if I had five days to be able to play, it would have been a long shot,” he said, “because I still was dealing with stuff.”
We’re all still dealing with stuff. As long as the sports leagues aren’t volunteering to shut down until the latest virus storm passes, a fact of sports life will be the virus temporarily picking off athletes and games, one at a time or in bunches, hoping fans don’t notice or care enough to tune out.
Hey, fantasy team owners: For the sake of Lockett and all athletes, try not to whine on social media.
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Kirsten Kendrick’s Q. & A. with Thiel can be heard every Friday during Morning Edition at 5:45am and 7:45am and again that same day on All Things Considered at 4:44pm. It also airs Saturday at 9:35am.