Three months ago life was moving as smoothly as a Jerry Jeudy route for Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian.
But following a yearly physical required by head coach Nick Saban, Sarkisian’s world came to a haul when he discovered he needed to have an open heart procedure. Just one week later Sarkisian went under the knife and was able to avoid the potential future troubles.
The correction of the “congenital cardiovascular anomaly” left Sarkisian with a bit of a different perspective on check-ups moving forward.
“For me, going and doing the physical, you think being 46 years old, it’s kind of ho-hum, you go do all the tests,” said Sarkisian. “They detected something in my heart, and through further tests recognized we might have to do further tests. We did that and had to have surgery.
“I think, for the most part, Dr. Richardson was fantastic, who I dealt with. I think what comes out of it is, we never know how healthy, how sick — we can feel great. I felt great, and at the end of the day, I had to have open-heart surgery. You just try to surround yourself with the best people, you take advice. Coming out of that surgery, I’ve just tried to follow the protocol from my doctor and what I needed to do as the steps.”
Sarkisian later said he feels “very good” and is happy to have shed a few pounds following the procedure. But soon after the surgery, Sarkisian had to take it upon himself to take even more precautions due to the nature of COVID-19.
“There are some pretty simple rules that if we all just buy into — and that’s all I’ve been trying to do — life really isn’t that difficult,” said Sarkisian. “Wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance from the next person. At that point, if we could all just do those things, like my life is pretty comfortable. I’m not one to go into really crowded places and have a bunch of people around me without masks on and I don’t know if they’ve washed their hands.
“I try to use hand sanitizer and wash my hands. I try to keep my mask on when I’m around other people. Even when I’m around the players, sometimes it’s uncomfortable being on the field with my mask on, but I know it’s the best thing for me and it’s the best thing for them. I don’t know if it’s a public service announcement or not but if we could all just do that, things would be a lot simpler and a lot easier for all of us.”
*Get the BEST Alabama football insider information, message board access, and recruiting coverage today! SIGN UP HERE to unlock our subscriber only content!*
Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
