Yahoo Lifestyle Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill calls coronavirus battle ‘an awful experience’
Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill is the second owner in the league to have contracted COVID-19 this year — something that landed him in the hospital in July.
That experience, he said this weekend, was anything but fun.
“It’s terrible,” Bidwill said, via the Arizona Republic. “I was wearing masks. I had hand sanitizer that I brought every place. I stayed away from everyone.
“I thought I would be part of the 85 percent of the population that would have no or mild symptoms. I wasn’t.”
‘It was an awful experience’
Bidwill tested positive for the coronavirus in July while he was traveling on the East Coast and was hospitalized for nearly a week in Rhode Island. The 55-year-old had been working remotely since the team’s facility was shut down in March.
“I ended up in the hospital in an ICU for five days,” Bidwill said, via the Arizona Republic. “It was an awful experience. I never had major problems breathing but I did have severe headaches and a temperature that kept spiking to 103 degrees. It was very scary.”
Bidwill, who has served as the team’s president since 2007, is the second owner in the league to test positive. New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson announced she had tested positive on Friday, though it’s unclear if the 73-year-old is suffering from any symptoms like Bidwill was.
[ Coronavirus: How the sports world is responding to the pandemic ]
Benson is currently under daily medical care and recovering well.
There were more than 6 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States as of Monday night, according to The New York Times, and more than 183,000 deaths attributed to it.
"It really knocked me down and kicked my butt for about a month,” Bidwill told NBC 12. And, you just don't know how your body is going to react to it. … We've had some fans that have lost their lives. It's tragic and terrible and I just ask everybody, take this seriously."
More from Yahoo Sports:
