Chargers on ‘Hard Knocks’: Anthony Lynn reveals he has COVID-19 contract in offseason

While the coach of his division rival in Las Vegas pretends he contracted COVID-19 as a ploy to scare his players into staying vigilant, Anthony Lynn found himself actually battling the virus. There was no need for him to go full ‘Jon Gruden’ when motivating his players on a recent episode of HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks,’ instead breaking the actual news he had contracted the novel coronavirus this offseason. His goal was simple, in that he wanted the Los Angeles Chargers to know they’re not invincible. 

“I can’t promise you you’re not going to get infected. I got infected,” Lynn said, via The Chicago Tribune.

Entering his fourth season with the Chargers, Lynn is doing so in humbling fashion — having fought to recover from COVID-19 in a season that will also see his team enter the brand-new SoFi Stadium to a lot of empty seats. Now fully recovered, Lynn says he initially sought a test after experiencing body aches and a cough, and subsequently noticing a golfer get tested after feeling the same symptoms, which is when it all truly hit home.

And that includes his immediate fear of possibly becoming a spreader of COVID-19.  

“I never even would have known, and probably got other people infected,” Lynn said. “The first thing, you feel a little bit like an outcast. That was probably harder for me than the sickness. I was feeling like, ‘I can’t go here or I’m going to infect this person.’ 

“When you’re used to fixing the problem, now I’m the problem.”

Lynn’s experience is yet another poignant reminder for the NFL as training camps get underway. Each team and its players must adhere to very stringent COVID-19 safety protocol if there’s the be a professional football season, but there’s also the possibility one or several players will get lax at some point — similar to what occurred with the Miami Marlins in Major League Baseball — which could create a devastating situation for the team and the NFL as a whole. 

As it stands, the Chargers have had no positive COVID-19 tests and no players opted out of the season, so camp is off to a good start, and Lynn hopes his testimony helps keep it that way.