The Detroit Lions had to kick off their training camp conditioning drills without two of their most notable weapons. Back on July 29, both Kenny Golladay and T.J. Hockenson were placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list, causing them to quarantine for over a week each before they could enter the team facility in Allen Park.
Since then, both have been activated from the reserve list and both took part in Monday’s first fully-padded practice of the year. After the morning’s practice, both met with the media and shared their experience of testing positive for the virus and living with it.
“A few symptoms,” Golladay said when asked about his COVID-19 experience. “Just like a fever and that’s it. Lasted like two days, nothing major.”
After clearing symptoms, Golladay was activated from the reserve list on August 5, just a week after being placed on the list. Flash forward a couple of two weeks, and the entire ordeal is behind him.
“I’m 100 percent, and I’m just happy to be out there on the field right now, and that’s all that matters,” Golladay said.
For Hockenson, his situation was a bit different. Although he was asymptomatic, he was on the list for an additional three days, until finally taken off reserve-COVID on August 8.
“(It was) pretty lonely,” Hockenson said of his time on reserve-COVID. “There wasn’t a whole lot going on. I, fortunately, didn’t have any symptoms. It was kind of a surprise to test positive for that. Having to spend a week away from the teammates was tough. But it was a week for me to get mentally prepared for camp.”
Hockenson also took the opportunity to get physically prepared for camp. His father brought over some weights, and the results speak for themselves. The second-year tight end is noticeably more muscular than he was in his rookie season.
The entire experience has been a learning opportunity for Hockenson, because even though he didn’t suffer from any symptoms, he knows others haven’t been as fortunate.
“I think it’s something that a lot of the community, people my age don’t take as seriously as they should,” Hockenson said. “It’s one of those things that you need to do the right thing, and you need to be quarantined if you have it and all those steps that they give us. It was something that I learned, because I didn’t want to give it to anybody: my teammates, my family. You just don’t want to put anybody at risk, because you know how deadly it was no matter if I had symptoms or not.”