Rams' Brian Allen first NFL player known to have tested positive for COVID-19
The first active NFL player known to have tested positive for COVID-19 has been revealed. On Wednesday night, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reported on "Fox Football Now" that center Brian Allen of the Los Angeles Rams tested positive for coronavirus three weeks ago. Rams coach Sean McVay confirmed the news on the program.
Then the team did, in a tweet, adding Allen is "feeling good, he's healthy and he's on the road to recovery."
Allen was a fourth-round pick of the Rams out of Michigan State back in the 2018 NFL Draft. He played in 13 games during his rookie season with no starts, and then started all nine games he played in this year before an MCL injury placed him on injured reserve.
"I talked to Brian this morning, and he said he got it actually about three weeks ago," said Glazer. "The first thing he said was, 'I woke up three weeks ago, I couldn't smell anything. I lost all sense of smell to the point where I had smelling salts here, I cracked them open, put them to my nose and nothing happened.' Then he lost his sense of taste. He said, 'All I could feel was texture in my mouth -- literally the only sense I had.'"
Glazer says Allen dealt with periodic sore throats, fatigue, headaches and stiffness. Allen also said that everything felt different than any other flu he had ever had. The symptoms lasted for three or four days when he decided to return to his doctor last week and was re-tested. Allen tested positive again, but because of how long he has had it, doctors say he should be in the "all clear" this Thursday. Doctors have reportedly told Allen that he will regain his sense of taste and smell in the next six or eight months.
McVay spoke about what he had to go through with one of his players being involved in what has turned into a global pandemic.
"The first thing was, number one, you just want to make sure that you're doing all the necessary steps to identify how are you feeling health wise, and then are we making sure that everybody else is aware of what he's been exposed to," said McVay. "I talked to him yesterday and I'm really glad to hear that he's feeling good, he's healthy, and he's on the road to recovery. I think we all understand that the severity of what this has meant for some people -- fortunately for Brian he's on the road to recovery -- I think he did a great job of letting us know right away so we could be timely in our response and make sure that we didn't expose anybody else."
While the coronavirus has affected virtually every other sport, the NFL offseason has gone on as planned. Free agency continued on schedule and -- although it will be 100 percent virtual -- the NFL Draft will as well. The 2020 NFL Draft is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 23.