Packers Huddle

One interesting wrinkle to covid that I haven't heard mentioned is that it could be that the players who get covid get weakened and then suck. I keep seeing guys who tested positive come back and underperform but I was wondering what more extensive data would show. All of the focus about covid is politically charged, and when it involves sports, it's all about the health of the athletes, but I think it might be worthwhile to look into performance on the field at some point.

I thought it was odd how LSU has gotten uncharacteristically embarrassed a few times now after their coach said the whole team basically caught it. Same thing with Baylor this past week (they shouldn't really lose to UT). Cam Newton played horribly yesterday and the Patriots lost in a manner in which I have pretty much never seen a Belichick team lose. We all hear rumors of post-covid decreases in various abilities. So could it be possible that covid plays more of a role on the field than is currently being acknowledged?

My wife is a doctor and she has friends who were also doctors who have gotten diagnosed. They said they were essentially asymptomatic. The CDC actually recommends no exercise for 1 month after diagnosis. Her friends thought that was ridiculous, as would I honestly, but they all said when they started exercising again after being out of quarantine that it was like they hadn't exercises in years.

And these are in-shape people.

They said it was like an elephant was sitting on them.

My wife was diagnosed with a real bad pneumonia in 2017 and she could hardly run 18 to 24 months later because her lungs were on fire. There is absolute truth to this.

We absolutely do not want Packers to get this. Sternberger I think had it and he clearly has underperformed expectations. What is it attributed to? No idea. But this virus impacts everyone so different and we also don't really now the long term effects of this illness.

Many patients have reported post-infection cognitive issues and there are studies underway now to assess them
Loss of memory ,attention span, even impacts on daily activities. The SARS-CoV-2 virus does cross the blood-brain barrier, so it can infect and affect your brain.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the ... 100821133

" Doctors in a large Chicago medical center found that more than 40% of patients with COVID showed neurologic manifestations at the outset, and more than 30% of those had impaired cognition. Sometimes the neurological manifestations can be devastating and can even lead to death.

However, new research is now suggesting that there may be long-term neurologic consequences in those who survive COVID infections, including more than seven million Americans and another 27 million people worldwide. Particularly troubling is increasing evidence that there may be mild — but very real — brain damage that occurs in many survivors, causing pervasive yet subtle cognitive, behavioral, and psychological problems."


I'd think those impacts would be seen on a football field where high-end cognitive processing under intense mental and physical stress happens for 3 hours at a time.

Yeah I would want to see something like PFF or some other types of grades for players who have had covid, pre-infection and then post-infection, even though I don't really trust PFF. But I've wondered this before about stuff like the flu. I think everyone wants a superstar who is going to show up and tough it out but in reality I would bet most guys who are infected with a virus end up taking a performance hit and maybe more often than not playing the backup should be the call even if the starter could play through it (which they almost always do).

Michael Jordan's flu game has set everyone up for decades to play through it but the fact of the matter is that none of these football players are Michael Jordan.

go pak go wrote: ↑

26 Oct 2020 16:58

My wife is a doctor and she has friends who were also doctors who have gotten diagnosed. They said they were essentially asymptomatic. The CDC actually recommends no exercise for 1 month after diagnosis. Her friends thought that was ridiculous, as would I honestly, but they all said when they started exercising again after being out of quarantine that it was like they hadn't exercises in years.

And these are in-shape people.

They said it was like an elephant was sitting on them.

My wife was diagnosed with a real bad pneumonia in 2017 and she could hardly run 18 to 24 months later because her lungs were on fire. There is absolute truth to this.

We absolutely do not want Packers to get this. Sternberger I think had it and he clearly has underperformed expectations. What is it attributed to? No idea. But this virus impacts everyone so different and we also don't really now the long term effects of this illness.

So the asymptomatic people were the ones who took a hit after infection, even though they hadn't really felt all that bad while they were infected?

texas wrote: ↑

26 Oct 2020 18:04

go pak go wrote: ↑

26 Oct 2020 16:58

My wife is a doctor and she has friends who were also doctors who have gotten diagnosed. They said they were essentially asymptomatic. The CDC actually recommends no exercise for 1 month after diagnosis. Her friends thought that was ridiculous, as would I honestly, but they all said when they started exercising again after being out of quarantine that it was like they hadn't exercises in years.

And these are in-shape people.

They said it was like an elephant was sitting on them.

My wife was diagnosed with a real bad pneumonia in 2017 and she could hardly run 18 to 24 months later because her lungs were on fire. There is absolute truth to this.

We absolutely do not want Packers to get this. Sternberger I think had it and he clearly has underperformed expectations. What is it attributed to? No idea. But this virus impacts everyone so different and we also don't really now the long term effects of this illness.

So the asymptomatic people were the ones who took a hit after infection, even though they hadn't really felt all that bad while they were infected?

Correct. They got positive tests and were mocking the virus. Again. These are doctors. They were mocking the virus. Said it was a great vacation and then tried to go work out two weeks later and they told me it flattened them. Destroyed them.

My mom is an employee health nurse at a major hospital network and deals with Covid all the time too. What she says is basically you can't predict how anyone will respond to this virus or when they will respond. Some have respitory issues. Others can't smell or taste. Some have cognitive issues. Some have stomach issues. Others lose feeling in their hands and feet. Some have fevers they can't shake. it's just so random.

I think this is a very good thread and especially for an athlete, I absolutely would not want it or want any of the Packers to get it.

I wonder if Cam Newton shouldn't be playing this soon after recovering from Covid. Graham Mertz, the promising young QB in Madison, just tested positive so they will have to be careful with him and not rush him back too soon.

Here's my view.

The NFL guys are zillioniares, they have all kinds of (medical) advisors at hand and these fellas want to play as long and as good as possible because it translates into big bucks. If there was probable evidence that COVID weakens the body significantly they wouldn't play and rather wait for next season. If there was probable evidence that COVID "just" weakens the body they'd take longer breaks and rehabs. The fact that they treat COVID like a flu tells me that COVID is just seen as a flu and that all the other stuff about long-term effect is more a hand-in-hand deal between government and doctors to raise more awareness among us, the mob. Let's face it: if they would come out like "it's like flu and everything will be fine" people would tend to loosen their guard even more.

Still a very good point by texas since of course it could be just that the data is not good enough and deceives us. One should keep a look at those COVID players.

German_Panzer wrote: ↑

26 Oct 2020 23:32

Here's my view.

The NFL guys are zillioniares, they have all kinds of (medical) advisors at hand and these fellas want to play as long and as good as possible because it translates into big bucks. If there was probable evidence that COVID weakens the body significantly they wouldn't play and rather wait for next season. If there was probable evidence that COVID "just" weakens the body they'd take longer breaks and rehabs. The fact that they treat COVID like a flu tells me that COVID is just seen as a flu and that all the other stuff about long-term effect is more a hand-in-hand deal between government and doctors to raise more awareness among us, the mob. Let's face it: if they would come out like "it's like flu and everything will be fine" people would tend to loosen their guard even more.

Still a very good point by texas since of course it could be just that the data is not good enough and deceives us. One should keep a look at those COVID players.

The last thing the league needs is someone with brain damage from the virus getting a concussion.