Saints head coach Sean Payton has the first and only known case of coronavirus in the NFL – although the 56-year-old expects that to change any day now.
“When all is said and done, a third of every group in the country might get it,” Payton told NBC Sports’ Peter King. “And we’ve got to be careful about spreading it, of course. [Saints offensive coordinator] Pete Carmichael has diabetes, so we’ve got to be careful about him, and everyone really.”
Payton attended the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, working closely alongside 2,500 NFL personnel and media. He saw a couple of Broadway plays in New York the following weekend before golfing with friends in Naples, Florida days later.
Ten days ago, Payton attended a horse race in Arkansas to see Bill Parcells’ horse run, and he started to feel symptoms shortly after.
“Back home, on Sunday, just a week ago today, I felt cruddy, a little feverish and just weak,” he said. “Had the chills. Woke up Monday with the chills. Achy. I called our team doc, described the symptoms. It’s not flu season down here, so he thought there was an 85-percent chance I had [coronavirus].
“I went over to a hospital, drove up the little ramp there, and they came out to test me. They had all their protective gear on. I rolled down my window. Just like you’ve seen—they did nostril one, then they did nostril two. That was it. On Thursday, he texted me. ‘Tested positive. Call me.’ I wasn’t nervous about it, because I was feeling good.”
Payton, who served as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for the Giants from 1999 to 2002, said he feels better but is still weak. He plans to join a NFL Competition Committee teleconference Monday to discuss potential rule changes.
But contracting the virus has given Payton a unique perspective on the national pandemic.
“Look, I feel well. I’ll get better, and we’ll go on, and we’ll have the draft in some way, shape or form,” Payton said. “That’s not what’s important right now. What’s important is our health-care workers, our doctors and nurses, on the front lines of this thing. We’ve got to take care of them.
“For now, this is our life, and we’ve got to be prepared for it. Some basic stuff in all of our lives is going to be threatened. We’ve all got to exercise a little more social responsibility. We all felt invincible at some point in our lives, as young people do now. But think of the person you might be affecting.”