‘He’s like a son to me,’ Penn State coach James Franklin said on Wednesday evening, eyes growing misty as he announced the news running back Journey Brown had been recently diagnosed with a heart condition and would no longer be able to play the game of football.
Brown was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — a condition which relates to thickened heart muscles that make it difficult for the heart to pump blood — following a ‘routine COVID-19 test’ Franklin said, although the condition itself was not a byproduct of COVID-19 itself.
Franklin and Penn State have not confirmed that Brown had ever tested positive for COVID-19 but Big Ten testing standards require athletes who do test positive to undergo various heart related monitoring procedures. While multiple issues can arise from COVID-19, Big Ten and college officials have long worried about the effects of Myocarditis an inflammation of the heart often found in athletes who had tested positive for COVID-19.
‘We learned about this in early September, and we’ve been we’ve been working through this and and dealing with this as a team,’ Franklin said. Penn State had previously announced that Brown would be out for some amount of time but it was unknown if he would be able to return or when that final decision might be made.
‘Journey is one of the most popular and respected players on our team,’ Franklin added. ‘The entire organization is rallied behind Journey and his family and we need Nittany Nation to do the same. Journey has handled this unbelievably well. And I know he’ll be extremely successful in whatever he decides to do. […] we found out like I said in early September, and then we were able to go outside and get some second opinions. And it was confirmed exactly what what our doctors here thought on on campus [that Brown could not play.]’
The junior running back posted 890 yards, 12 touchdowns on 129 carries during the 2019 season and was slated to be Penn State’s primary back in a three-headed rotation between him, Noah Cain and Devyn Ford. Cain will miss the reminder of the season due to an injury sustained during Penn State’s Week 1 loss to Indiana.
Brown released the following statement on Twitter shortly after Franklin concluded his weekly post-practice media session:
‘I can still remember the first time I truly fell in love with the game I’ve been playing since fourth grade. Back then it was a game I played for fun, but when I was a sophomore in high school, my life changed, and I feel in love with football. All I could think of was when I can play, how I can get better, what can I do to be a better teammate, and at that moment football became less of a game for me a more of a lifestyle.’
‘The pain of note being able to play the game I love anymore hurts and I can’t explain how I am feeling right now. However, I can walk away from the game knowing I truly gave my all at every practice, on every down and in the closer room every day. You never know the you will play your last snap.’
