'I'm The King Of Corona': Former Steeler QB Terry Hanratty Is Out Of The Hospital After Testing Positive For Coronavirus
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Seven of the eight seasons Terry Hanratty played in the NFL were with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Notre Dame standout finished second in the Heisman Trophy balloting during his days in South Bend, and he took the Fighting Irish to a National Championship in 1966.
However, the biggest win of his life might have come this month – in a hospital bed.
The former Steelers quarterback won two Super Bowls with Pittsburgh. Today, he is also a coronavirus survivor.
"This is not the one you want a headline for," say Hanratty from his Connecticut home. "It's been a little rough this past month, but I am on the upswing now so that is all good."
The 72-year-old now lives in New England. He has been out of the hospital for two weeks after being hospitalized for six days. The one-time Butler High School star started showing symptoms last month.
"My doctor gave me a prescription for the (coronavirus) test," Hanratty tells KDKA's Rick Dayton, and "because I'm at that level of 72, former smoker, you know, so I fall into that range to watch out."
As part of Hanratty's treatment protocol, he was given the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. He said after just three days, he started to feel much better. Before his trip to the hospital, he had never heard of the drug.
"I had no clue, and you've heard so much about it since then, and you start wondering, why not?" wondered Hanratty. "We've been using this thing for decades. And it can help. I mean there was no side effects whatsoever."
He knows his lifelong habit of smoking put him in a high-risk category, but he is really glad he kicked the habit.
"I had double pneumonia with the corona," he laughed. Even though he is out of the hospital and back home, Hanratty still wears a surgical mask to cover his nose and mouth.
"Luckily my daughter got me off of smoking three years ago, so I don't know whether I would have been able to handle all that if I had the lungs all smoked up," he said. "You don't have to have those lungs all smoked up."
He describes COVID-19 as like having the flu times five.
"You could never get warm. The chills are phenomenal. The fever was phenomenal, so you just want to try to get through that. I had four blankets on me one time I still shivering in the hospital bed," claims Hanratty.
What does the former Butler High and Notre Dame standout tell people now?
"Coronavirus is for real. Be extremely careful. I was very careful. I go to the grocery store, and I took my own bags. I never used the cart when I went there." He paused, "And you know I stayed away from people – and yet, I ended up getting it."
Despite having pneumonia in both lungs and being infected by coronavirus, number five came out on top – again.
"I'm the king of corona."
