'Extremely Scary': NFL Player Suffers 'Medical Event' During Practice, Collapses to the Ground
As any football player or fan can tell you, the scariest football injuries are always the non-contact injuries.
More often than not, non-contact injuries mean that something severe (a ligament or tendon tear, for instance) has just happened.
So one can only imagine the level of concern when New York Giants tight end Tommy Sweeney went to the ground during practice Wednesday with no warning signs.
ESPN’s Jordan Raanan took to X and reported that Sweeney was down on the field for several minutes.
Scary scene at Giants practice earlier with TE Tommy Sweeney down on the field for several minutes and being worked on by multiple medical personnel. Sweeney eventually left in a cart sitting up but with his shirt off. #giants
— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) August 23, 2023
“Scary scene at Giants practice earlier with TE Tommy Sweeney down on the field for several minutes and being worked on by multiple medical personnel,” Raanan posted to X.
In a subsequent X post, Raanan revealed that Sweeney had had a nondescript “medical event,” before adding that the tight end was “stable, alert and conversant.”
At the time of the scare, Sweeney was taken off the field in a cart, sitting upright with his shirt off.
According to the New York Post, Giants quarterback Daniel Jones was there on the field and said of the incident: “That was extremely scary. You never want to see that on the field. I haven’t been inside yet to see how he’s doing, but heard he’s doing OK and is up, so [I’m] definitely thinking about him.”
The Post also notes that Sweeney was working in the “rehab area” when he went down.
Per The Associated Press, in 2020, Sweeney missed the entire season after being diagnosed with the inflamed heart condition myocarditis after having COVID-19.
Sweeney was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the seventh-round of the 2019 NFL Draft.
After playing out his rookie contract with the Bills — a relatively notable feat for a seventh-round pick — Sweeney hit free agency, where he signed with the Giants in March.
Sweeney, more of a blocking tight end than an explosive receiver, has career totals of 18 catches for 165 yards and a receiving touchdown.
This health scare couldn’t have come at a worse time for Sweeney, who is locked into a fierce positional battle for the third-string tight end spot on the Giants.
Big free-agency pick-up Darren Waller is firmly entrenched as the starting tight end, and promising prospect Daniel Bellinger looks locked into the No. 2 spot.
Assuming Sweeney is healthy and survives the final round of cuts, he and the Giants will kick off the regular season playing on Sept. 10 against their fierce NFC East rivals, the Dallas Cowboys.
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