A Losing Bet

During a brief playing career with the Jacksonville Jaguars from 1995 to 2001, former NFL left tackle Tony Boselli was among the most dominant offensive tackles in pro football history. He appeared in five Pro Bowls and made the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 1990’s, before retiring to spend more time with his family while occasionally participating in triathlons.

In late March, the 6’7” 324-pound athlete found himself close to death after discovering he had COVID-19. Just days before, Boselli had begun experiencing low-grade fever and a general feeling of fatigue. After finding out a person he had been around days before had been diagnosed with the virus, Boselli checked into the Mayo Clinic and discovered two days later that he also had tested positive.

Boselli was given fluids and meds that seemed to be working and Boselli was feeling better over the next three days. However, days after his initial diagnosis, Boselli’s condition took a turn for the worse and he checked back into the clinic. In an interview with “The Dan Lebatard Show” earlier this month, Boselli said he had initially thought he would be fine until he woke up that day feeling much worse than he could have ever imagined.

“I said I’m 47 (years-old), healthy, no issues,” Boselli said. “It brought me to my knees.”

The scariest moment for Boselli was when his pulmonologist seemed concerned enough to be talking in terms of “if” they could help rather than “how” they could help. Boselli was put in ICU, which he said was a blurry memory for him. He recalled, however, that the doctors continued to try new things just short of putting him on a ventilator. Boselli focused on his faith and tried not to think about what might happen. But in his mind, he began to feel he might not make it out of the clinic.

“I remember laying there at that moment and thinking, this is real. I could die from this,” Boselli said. “This could be how I go.”

Continuing to fight and with some of the top doctors at his disposal, Boselli finally began to feel better and was actually able to check out five days after his condition had taken a turn for the worse. But one of the most dominant athletes in the modern era had been humbled by a virus that has frightened so many but also continued to divide the nation. With millions of people taking a strong position that they should stay inside and social distance themselves from loved ones and society in general until the virus threat has gone away, others have taken a position focused more on money and economic realities being just as important as human life.

For me, I haven’t seen my college-attending son during the entire pandemic. I saw my parents once early on when so much was still unknown and being debated. I’ve seen a handful of friends from a somewhat impersonal distance and on rare occasions. I've worked from home since mid-March. I’ve had to go to the store, but I wore winter face protection in the absence of a mask every time I left home.

I’ve seen a lot of comments about how this is either a conspiracy or not a big deal or that it is more important to get the economy going than to quarantine for the sake of saving lives. Some like to compare it to the flu and have actually tried to use a year’s worth of data to compare to the few months the Coronavirus has been around. In my opinion - and the opinion of so many millions of others - none of these arguments carry any weight, especially with over a million Americans infected and over 58,000 dead.

One of those is Boselli, who said the severity of this extends beyond politics and some of the ridiculous theories that have been floated around by people not taking it seriously. Boselli said the odds of getting it might not be extremely high for healthy people of a certain age range, but he said the threat to each individual and especially those who could be more susceptible to the virus should be enough to be patient and wait it out.

“Do you want to play the odds that way?”