ESPN’s Mike Greenberg 'Contemplated My Own Mortality' Due to Debilitating Heart Condition (Exclusive)

“It became a real terrible part of my life,” the ESPN host tells PEOPLE

• Mike Greenberg was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in 2015

• The 57-year-old spent years dealing with debilitating symptoms and failed medications before undergoing a life-changing catheter ablation procedure 

• The ESPN analyst has now partnered with Johnson & Johnson MedTech for their Get Smart About AFib initiative, hoping to educate others who have the condition

Mike “Greeny” Greenberg was only in his 40s when mortality crossed his mind for the first time.

The sports analyst — who was announced as the new host of ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" — always considered himself “extremely in tune” with his health. Then came a life-changing hospitalization in 2015.

“Out of absolutely nowhere, one night I'm sitting on the couch and my heart rate just went from normal to 165 like that,” he tells PEOPLE. “I have never had a heart attack — thank God — but I was absolutely positive I was having one.”

Greenberg, now 57, was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. Once there, doctors confirmed that he wasn’t having a heart attack but said further testing was needed to figure out the cause of his symptoms.

After a couple of weeks, he was diagnosed with a condition he’d never heard of before: atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is a quivering or irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) that can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications, according to the American Heart Association. Symptoms include irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, light-headedness and fatigue. There is no cure for AFib, but treatments can help manage symptoms and prevent complications.

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“When I was first diagnosed, it was a startling experience in my life and it really sort of changed my mentality. It was the first time that I ever contemplated my own mortality,” Greenberg admits.

“I still considered myself young at that time, and you just sort of view yourself as invincible. And all of a sudden, I encountered something that had a name and was real and wasn't going to go away on its own,” he says. “It’s a frightening realization that I'm not invincible.”

Doctors told the radio show host to expect these AFib episodes periodically and prescribed a beta blocker medication to take when he was having an episode to help his symptoms subside. The medicaton initially worked, and Greenberg adjusted to his new norm.

But as time went on, his episodes became not only more frequent but more intense. And “most alarmingly,” the medication became useless and gave him almost no relief.

“I can't count the number of nights in the years 2021 and 2022 that I did not sleep at all because I'm lying in bed with my heart racing at 165 beats per minute. And the number of days of work that I missed or the number of days that I went to work and I was nowhere near my best,” he explains. “It became a real terrible part of my life."

“I was really frustrated when it got really bad,” he adds. “Imagine if you get on a treadmill and you turn it up as fast as you can manage and you run as fast as you can for five minutes. That's how my heart felt just lying there in bed, not moving. And knowing that feeling wasn't going to go away for hours.”

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The turning point in his health battle, Greenberg recalls, was in the summer of 2022 while visiting vineyards in Burgundy, France.

“Alcohol and caffeine are two very common triggers for people who have AFib and drinking wine was my trigger,” he shared. “So there I am in Burgundy and I didn’t drink any wine because I was afraid. I was afraid my heart would start racing and I couldn't do anything about it. And that was really when I realized I need to do something about this because I don't want this to be my life.”

Greenberg’s AFib ultimately became so debilitating that in 2023, he decided his New Year’s resolution would be to do everything he could to find a better solution to his condition. He found a new cardiologist — Dr. Jim W. Cheng of New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Weill Cornell Medical Center — who, within 10 minutes, recommended he undergo a catheter ablation.

A catheter ablation is a minimally invasive procedure that stops the electrical impulses that cause irregular heart rhythms, according to the Mayo Clinic. A thin tube called a catheter is inserted through a blood vessel to the heart and once there, heat or cold energy is used to create tiny scars in the heart which block irregular rhythms and restore a typical heartbeat.

Greenberg decided to have the procedure in March 2023 and he’s been in awe of its life-changing effects.

“In the year and a half that has passed since, I have had a combined total of zero attacks, zero episodes of AFib. I've had no racing heart, no issues whatsoever,” he says, adding that he’s even back to enjoying a glass of wine when he wants. “It has given me my life back. I tell people all the time, I feel 10 years younger than I felt five years ago. I feel whole again.

“I don't have any time to be frustrated about the fact that it took me a while to get there. I'm just really, really grateful and relieved that I did,” he adds. “Medically, I will have AFib for the rest of my life, but right now it has no impact on me. I live as though I did not and that is joyous. It is hard to explain, but it is like getting a new lease on life.”

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That’s why the ESPN host has now partnered with Johnson & Johnson MedTech for their Get Smart About AFib initiative, hoping to educate patients about the signs and symptoms of AFib and the treatment options available.

“There’s a lot of pertinent information out there,” Greenberg stresses. “I'm not a doctor, and I'm not telling anyone they should have catheter ablation. What I am telling anyone living with AFib is that if it is impacting your life in a meaningful way, you should at least ask about the possibility.”

Discussing his journey for the first time for September's AFib Awareness Month, Greenberg says it would be a disservice if he didn’t use the platform he’s built over the years to share his story and hopefully encourage others to listen to their bodies and push for answers.

“And this does not apply solely to AFib, but for people who are having any kind of health challenge in their lives,” he tells PEOPLE.

“This was very much an eye-opening experience,” Greenberg says. “If you know something is wrong, if you don't advocate for yourself, if you don't ask those questions, if you don't get second opinions, no one's going to do it for you. And the one who will bear the brunt of that for the most part is you. So that’s what I hope people will do.”

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