NFL player steps away after pericarditis diagnosis

Denver Broncos wide receiver KJ Hamler is stepping away from the start of the 2023 season after being diagnosed with pericarditis.

Pericarditis is an inflammation of the heart’s lining tissue. Along with myocarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle — pericarditis is one of the more common side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine that are reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In a recent Instagram post, the 24-year-old revealed he received the diagnosis "after feeling some chest pains while working out on the break before camp started." 

“After feeling some chest pains while working out on the break before camp started (last Tuesday), I got everything checked out and was diagnosed with mild heart irritation, called pericarditis,” Hamler wrote. “I’ve got a great treatment plan with medicine and am taking a quick break to get this all taken care of so I can get back to doing what I love.”

Hamler has received a non-football illness designation from the NFL and can start playing later in the season.

The athlete’s chest pains occurred just days apart from basketball star Lebron James’ 18-year-old son's sudden cardiac arrest on the court.

In June, 28-year-old professional Dominican basketball player Oscar Cabrera Adames died from a heart attack after blaming the COVID-19 vaccine for his myocarditis diagnosis. 

“I got a damn Myocarditis from taking a f***ing vaccine. (I got 2 doses of Pfizer) And I knew it! Many people warned me,” he wrote after fainting during a game last year.

“A fully healthy first-class athlete, now I've been screwed over the damn f***ing vaccine. Don't take it, there are people that nothing happens to them but others do! It is like playing Russian roulette”.

NFL players have also been suffering “unexplained” cardiac injuries within the last two years. Earlier this year, NFL player Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest mid-game. He was diagnosed by the media with commotio cordis — a condition so rare and improbable that it had never before occurred in NFL history. Top medical physicians, however, suggested it was caused by the vaccine.

There have been 1,885 cardiac arrests among athletes around the world since the introduction of the COVID-19 injections, 70% of whom have died.

Previous data show that sudden cardiac death (SCD) among athletes under 35, described as a “well-known occurrence,” was much lower. According to a study by the International Olympic Committee, over a period of 38 years (1966–2004), 1,101 athletes under 35 suffered SCD, an average of 29 per year. Incidents were most prevalent in soccer and basketball.

But according to a May analysis of news reports from January 2021 through April 2023, 1,310 out of 1,884 athletes who suffered cardiac arrests died, an average of 561 athletes annually. Over half of these appear to have occurred among football players. These include 38-year-old former NFL star Uche Nwaneri, who called for the unvaccinated to be imprisoned. 

Other recent reports have shown a disturbing increase in cardiac events among athletes. A 2021 analysis from Israeli publication Real-Time News reported a 5-fold increase in sudden cardiac and unexplained deaths among FIFA players that year alone.