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‘It ain’t the flu’: Industry leaders share personal experiences fighting coronavirus

Any characterization that COVID-19 was equivalent to the seasonal flu has turned out to be, to borrow a phrase, fake news.

 

It’s sobering to speak with those from across the sports and marketing industries who have suffered through the illness that has shut down much of the world. While the symptoms can vary like the weather from one sick to person another, each shared vivid recollections from his time within the coronavirus bubble.

“It ain’t the flu that we’ve all had,” said Intersport President Brian Graybill, who suffered through the disease while trying to quarantine himself from family within his downtown Chicago condo. “I’ve never had that sort of thing where it hurts when you breathe. And with all that’s going on, it was just scary.”

Intersport President Brian Graybill was quarantined in Chicago.Intersport

Like everyone we interviewed, Graybill has recovered nicely — but his full recovery took weeks, not days.

Dane Jensen, director of strategy at Momentum Worldwide, knew he was sick around the end of March. Turned out that COVID-19 kept him bedridden for nine days, during which his wife came into his room only while wearing gloves and a mask. “It was relentless,” said Jensen, who ran a temperature as high 103.5, but recovered in enough time to complete his final MBA classes at Fordham. “I’d go to sleep aching every night and wake up in a pool of sweat every morning.”

While the virus seems to have new symptoms reported every week, the most disconcerting one is a temporary loss of taste and smell. Jensen discovered that unpleasant effect when a bowl of pasta tasted like aluminum foil. “No one’s really experienced that before, so it really freaked me out,” he said.

Deepen Parikh is returning to normal after dealing with the illness.Keith Morrison

Courtside Ventures partner Deepen Parikh had the same loss of taste and smell for four or five days, along with fever, bad chills, muscle aches and shortness of breath. Still, there was a bigger issue: His wife is pregnant, and after leaving New York City on March 16 for upstate New York to escape the center of the pandemic, they both were ill. A test confirmed it was COVID-19, so the couple drove 12 hours overnight to deposit their 2-year-old daughter at his in-laws in Michigan and went into quarantine at the Kalamazoo Radisson. After telling the hotel about their illness they got the sixth floor to themselves — not that it was especially crowded elsewhere. 

“Even pregnant my wife is much tougher,” he said. “I am a huge baby when it comes to being sick. Even though she’s pregnant, she was far more resilient. … I was craving pizza and beer and nothing’s worse than eating one of your favorite things and realizing it tastes like nothing. So, now I’m having pizza every chance I get.”

Like so many across the industry, Parikh is having diffculty adjusting to a schedule without travel. Still, he doesn’t think he’ll be leaving Michigan until at least the end of May. Other than groceries, his next trip will be to donate plasma to a medical community that is desperate for coronavirus antibodies.

After testing positive, McEnroe relegated himself to his basement, where he passed time learning how to produce his “Holding Court” podcasts with the likes of Dick Vitale and Ben Stiller.getty images

Everyone who’s been tested for the scourge has graphic stories. ESPN commentator and former tennis pro Patrick McEnroe went twice to a tented drive-in testing facility in New Rochelle, N.Y., one of the earliest places under quarantine. The first time he went there were two lines of cars; a week or so later there were six. After testing positive, McEnroe relegated himself to the basement of his Bronxville, N.Y., home, where he passed time learning how to produce his “Holding Court” podcasts with the likes of Dick Vitale and Ben Stiller, and doing remote teaching for his tennis academy in the Bronx, where he may have contracted the virus.

McEnroe was out of the basement quarantine in enough time for his daughter Victoria’s 14th birthday party last week, itself a complex undertaking because of the pandemic. “We had 12 to 14 of her friends drive by to talk and wave from their cars. My wife drew up the master schedule. God bless all the children who have to live through all of this. I never had what you’d consider severe symptoms, but it’s tough enough for all of us adults.”

Added Jensen, “Those nine days were a blur to me. I really don’t remember much, other than my wife reminding me to take my temperature almost every hour. But I’d imagine that’s something we’d all better get used to.”

Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

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