--- title: Former NFL Player Brandon Noble Nearly Died from a Superbug description: Former NFL defensive tackle Brandon Noble contracted a drug-resistant infection called MRSA. It ended his career, and almost took his life. canonical: https://time.com/5731932/brandon-noble-superbug-mrsa/ author: Brandon Noble article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-11-19T13:00:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:28.086Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Former NFL Player Brandon Noble Nearly Died from a Superbug og:description: Former NFL defensive tackle Brandon Noble contracted a drug-resistant infection called MRSA. It ended his career, and almost took his life. og:url: https://time.com/5731932/brandon-noble-superbug-mrsa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5775d3daaa459125/698a0632b3fce3c2480c5e1c/brandon-noble-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Brandon Noble on the Dallas Cowboys og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Former NFL Player Brandon Noble Nearly Died from a Superbug twitter:description: Former NFL defensive tackle Brandon Noble contracted a drug-resistant infection called MRSA. It ended his career, and almost took his life. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5775d3daaa459125/698a0632b3fce3c2480c5e1c/brandon-noble-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Tiny Bug Ended My NFL Career—and Almost My Life > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: The Battle Against Superbugs [Watch (HLS stream): The Battle Against Superbugs](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/av4BYsf3.m3u8) (2:08)  _Published 2017-05-04. TIME's Alice Park and Lon Tweeten walk you through the superbug phenomenon._ by [Brandon Noble](https://time.com/author/brandon-noble/) ## Brandon Noble Nov 19, 2019 1:00 PM UTC  Brandon Noble, #75 on the Dallas Cowboys, in a NFL game on Nov. 19, 2000 in Baltimore, Maryland. Brandon Noble, #75 on the Dallas Cowboys, in a NFL game on Nov. 19, 2000 in Baltimore, Maryland.Michael J. Minardi—Getty Images by [Brandon Noble](https://time.com/author/brandon-noble/) ## Brandon Noble Nov 19, 2019 1:00 PM UTC During my nine years in the NFL, I ruptured tendons in my fingers, suffered multiple concussions, and broke several bones. I tore my ACL, MCL, and PCL, and completely blew out my left knee. That last injury should have ended my career. But it didn’t. I put myself back together and played through the pain. What finally took me down? A tiny bug I had never heard of and couldn’t see. A drug-resistant staph infection called methicillin-resistant _Staphylococcus aureus_ cost me my NFL career—and almost my life. MRSA is one of many deadly, antibiotic-resistant infections. Together, these “superbugs” kill [160,000 Americans every year](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/infection-control-and-hospital-epidemiology/article/reestimating-annual-deaths-due-to-multidrugresistant-organism-infections/C9B09A787FCCA1EA992AF45066F3FF7C). And that number is expected to skyrocket. By 2050, they could kill [10 million people around the world every year](https://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/AMR%20Review%20Paper%20-%20Tackling%20a%20crisis%20for%20the%20health%20and%20wealth%20of%20nations%5F1.pdf). Right now, countries offer about $550 million annually in grants for antibiotics research and development. But, according to [DRIVE-AB](http://drive-ab.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/DRIVE-AB-Final-Report-Jan2018.pdf), a global public-private partnership advocating for investment into antibiotics, that’s not nearly enough, and does little to help actually bring these drugs to market. It’s time Americans realize just [how dangerous superbugs can be](https://time.com/4767683/bacteria-antibiotic-resistance-superbugs/), and devote more resources to stopping them. I contracted MRSA while recovering from a minor surgery on my right knee. The seemingly innocuous skin infection started off the size of a quarter. Doctors gave me a common antibiotic to treat it, then sent me home. Within 36 hours, I had a groin-to-ankle infection on my right leg, which had swelled into a giant red log. Before long, I was unconscious on the sofa at my daughter’s second birthday party. My wife rushed me to the hospital, where I underwent emergency surgery. I nearly lost my leg—and my life. Doctors gave me a cocktail of potent antibiotics, including one I had to take intravenously for six weeks until the infection finally subsided. Bacterial infections can morph into superbugs after repeated exposure to antibiotics. Every time they’re exposed to drugs, some bacteria survive. These survivors can spawn stronger, harder-to-treat superbugs like MRSA. If we don’t take action soon, minor surgeries could become too dangerous to perform. Already, traditional antibiotics can’t treat 40% to 50% of post-surgery infections like mine. MRSA alone infects 90,000 Americans each year and kills 20,000. [_Who should be TIME’s Person of the Year for 2019? Cast your vote in the reader poll._](https://time.com/person-of-the-year-poll-2019/) MRSA isn’t the only bug defying modern medicines. Strep throat, pneumonia, meningitis, and gonorrhea are all adapting to resist treatments. Bactrim, a once common cure for urinary tract infections, no longer treats a third of traditional UTIs. By 2050, superbugs will likely kill more people annually than cancer. It’s no wonder the World Health Organization named antibiotic resistance one of the top 10 threats to global health. To combat this crisis, we urgently need new, more powerful antibiotics. But hardly anyone is developing them. In fact, many drug companies are shutting down their antibiotics research divisions, or have already done so. Scientists have only developed and approved one new class of antibiotics since 1984. It’s easy to see why. To stave off resistance, doctors keep novel antibiotics under lock and key and only prescribe them in dire emergencies for short periods of time. As a result, new antibiotics almost never generate enough revenue to cover their average $1 billion development costs. Most drug companies, quite understandably, choose to pour their capital into research projects (such as experimental cancer medicines) that offer at least a slim chance of turning a profit. So what’s the solution? I’m normally a small government guy, but when it comes to antibiotic resistance, the government absolutely needs to get involved. Lawmakers could offer grants to researchers and reward drug companies that bring new antibiotics to market. Such rewards would make antibiotics research and development financially viable. It’s time to fight back against MRSA and other drug-resistant infections—before superbugs blitz us all. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5731932/brandon-noble-superbug-mrsa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5731932/brandon-noble-superbug-mrsa/"},"headline":"A Tiny Bug Ended My NFL Career—and Almost My Life","datePublished":"2019-11-19T13:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:28.086Z","description":"Former NFL defensive tackle Brandon Noble contracted a drug-resistant infection called MRSA. 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