Cameron Brate Talks About His Experience with COVID-19

Bucs tight end contracted the virus in recent months, but has since recovered.

Many professional sports teams have had to deal with positive COVID-10 diagnoses in recent months, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are no exception.

Tight end Cameron Brate is one member of the organization who recently contracted the virus, but has since recovered prior to reporting for training camp.

“For me personally, it’s kind of nice that I get to hold it over my fiancée’s head a little bit because she’s actually the one who infected me," Brate told reporters during a video conference call Thursday. "She got sick before I did and once she started displaying symptoms, we both went into quarantine. I actually initially tested negative, but at some point, I guess I contracted it from her and I later became infected." 

Brate said his symptoms were minor, but acknowledged that not having more obvious and severe symptoms could have caused him to put others at risk without a positive diagnosis from someone close to him.

"For me personally, the only thing I experienced was a loss of taste for two days," Brate said of his experience with the virus. "I am extremely grateful that I wasn’t one of the people who got some of the more severe symptoms. But I will say the kind of scary thing is if she hadn’t tested positive, I kind of would have gone on with my life as normal and potentially infected other people. That was kind of the main takeaway for me, just kind of how scary that possibility was. I think that’s potentially the case for a lot of people, as well.”

Brate now joins the rest of his Bucs teammates in preparations for an elongated training camp in the absence of preseason games, as the NFL tries to continue with a full 16-game regular season schedule amid the pandemic.