Giants NFL legend Mark Bavaro reveals he contemplated suicide while battling debilitating case of Long Covid… and admits he ‘prayed’ he would have a heart attack
- Former NFL tight end Mark Bavaro had a six-month battle with Long Covid
- He suffered from anxiety, paranoia, dizziness, fogginess and headaches
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
New York Giants legend Mark Bavaro has revealed he contemplated suicide – and even prayed about a heart attack – during a grueling six-month battle with Long Covid.
The 60-year-old former tight end — who spent nearly a decade in the NFL — suffered from anxiety, paranoia, dizziness, fogginess and headaches after contracting the disease in 2021. He fainted and developed insomnia.
Doctors eventually found treatment to help Bavaro recover, but not before he thought about ending it all. “It was like a tornado went through my head and I couldn’t stand it,” he said in a new book, “Once A Giant,” published by the BBC. New York Post.
‘You think of ways: “How do you die?”… ‘I prayed for a heart attack.’
The ‘odyssey… has caused more mental and physical pain than anything he has experienced during his nine-year career in the NFL’; antidepressants only ‘increase’ his suicidal thoughts.
New York Giants legend Mark Bavaro has revealed he contemplated suicide in 2021
The 60-year-old suffered from anxiety, paranoia, dizziness, fogginess and headaches
“My head was bursting at the seams,” he explained. ‘It felt like my brain was boiling. I couldn’t move. I had fatigue. The noise in my head was just unrelenting.”
Bavaro added: “You’re standing on top of a burning building and how long can you stay there until you jump off? You will understand a lot about other people and what they are going through.’
A two-time Super Bowl winner, Bavaro spent five years with the Giants before moving to the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles.
But his kitchen island and a kitchen cabinet are now filled with rows of prescription bottles — medications he previously needed and still takes.
The book claims that Bavaro reflected on that death during his darkest days ‘Had to be better than the non-stop anxiety raging in his head.’
“You’re standing on top of a burning building… how long can you stay there until you jump off?” he said
The 60-year-old also wondered whether all his years playing football and all those blows to the head made him more ‘vulnerable’.
Several of his former teammates and friends have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease found in hundreds of former NFL players.
Bavaro played alongside safety Dave Duerson at Notre Dame and with the Giants. In Philadelphia, he was a teammate of Andre “Dirty” Waters, while Bavaro was close with Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau.
All three died by suicide, and all three were later diagnosed with CTE.