Nick O’Leary has his sights set on a return to the NFL for the 2021 season. Pretty heady goals for the 6-foot-3, 252-pound tight end who is recovering from a heart attack and angioplasty procedures last month to clear 100 percent blockages.
“I feel good,” O’Leary, 27, told the Palm Beach Post Monday. “I feel better than I did before. I’ve got to be on blood thinners for six months to a year. That’s really the only reason now why I can’t play football. If I (got cut), they said that would be the biggest problem, wouldn’t be able to stop the bleeding.”
It wasn’t that way a month or so ago. O’Leary, the grandson of Jack Nicklaus, said he felt pain in his left arm that moved to his chest while working out, and then again while playing pickleball with his brother.
“I said sarcastically to my brother there’s something wrong with my heart, I don’t know what it is,” he said. “I happened to go to the hospital, and they told me it was a heart attack.”
O’Leary, the 2014 John Mackey Award winner at Florida State, spent three nights at a Palm Beach Gardens (Fl) hospital after having two stents placed into the blocked passageway. He is able to play golf, ride a bike, and work out lightly.
A tougher exercise regimen will come in time for O’Leary, who is a Las Vegas Raider after playing for the Bills, Jaguars, and Dolphins. O’Leary was a sixth-round pick by Buffalo in 2015. He will turn 28 Aug. 31.
He was placed on the reserve/non-football injury list by the Raiders, who told him “they’re going to leave the door open for next season.”
“I got all these friends, I’m in better shape than they’re in, I’m working out, I feel like I’m in good shape,” he said. “For it to happen to me, I was in shock. I didn’t think that’s what it would be. For that to happen and me ending up being in the hospital for three days and having a heart issue is pretty weird.”
O’Leary, primarily a blocking tight end, has caught 53 passes for 668 yards and four touchdowns in his NFL career.