DENVER — Sounding a little hoarse, Broncos star Von Miller appeared on the Today show Friday morning via home video, a day after he revealed he had contracted coronavirus.
“I’ve only been up for 35 minutes but I’m feeling better,’’ Miller said at the start of his 3 minute, 24-second interview that began at 7:02 a.m. MDT. (Will be shown in the mountain time zone at 9:02 a.m.)
Miller said on the program he contracted the novel virus even though he had left his Denver-area home only four times in the past four weeks – and even then he never left his car.
“I was shocked,’’ he said upon learning from Broncos team physician Dr. Steven Geraghty he tested positive for COVID-19. “We’ve been taking this serious since Day 1. I started in San Francisco training, where I normally train. And San Francisco was one of the first cities to have a stay-at-home order. Right when San Francisco had a stay at home order (on March 16) we made the decision to come back to Denver.
“I’ve been here in Denver for about four weeks now. Within that four weeks I probably left the house four times. With all those four times I never left the car. It was just to drive and pick up food and come back. I’ve really been taking it seriously in the home.
“Of course, I have people coming in and out like workers, maids, people that come do the plumbing, just everyday stuff. But it was nothing crazy. And I coughed and here we are today.’’
Later in day Friday, Miller added in an interview with ESPN he had a fish tank maintenance guy over and about two weeks ago had three of four guys, including teammate Brandon McManus, over at his home gym for a workout.
"That was the first guy I called to try and get ahead of this stuff,'' Miller said. "B-Mac, I'd say it's been about 15 days since he's been here. I started to feel symptoms about six days ago.''
9News reached out to McManus, who responded by text: "I'm all good. Tested negative for virus and antibody last week."
Miller had revealed to 9NEWS in an exclusive interview Thursday the events that led him to getting tested for the virus and he repeated the sequence Friday on Today and ESPN.
“It all started with just a simple cough,’’ he said. “It got worse. I also have asthma and my girlfriend, she was telling me that I wasn’t sounding normal and I should try my nebulizer. So I did. I tried the nebulizer, which I do before football games and before practice regularly.
“But this time was different. It really didn’t work like it should. I had waited another day, the cough still didn’t go away and my assistant (Marni Colbert) she said, ‘Why don’t you just get tested? There’s no harm in getting tested.’’
“I went down the street when I got tested. Two days later my doctor called me and said I had a positive result for Covid-19.’’
To conclude the interview, Miller was asked about the possibility of the NFL paying games in empty stadiums this season.
“Whatever’s safe,’’ he said. “Whatever’s safe. That would always be my first precaution to do whatever’s safe. Whatever we have to do to get things back to normal that’s what we should do. We shouldn’t move too fast. We should do whatever’s safe.’’
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