When I spoke with former Florida State defensive back Myron Rolle at the 2010 scouting combine, it was clear that he was set for bigger things than an NFL future. There are those draft prospects whose commitment to football is questioned because they’re interested in the arts, or they want to pursue a graduate degree, or they simply want to experience life beyond the prism of “see ball, get ball.”

Some in the NFL’s employ wondered if Rolle was into pro football for different reasons — he earned his bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science in just 2 1/2 years, he earned one of the 32 Rhodes Scholarships awarded every year, and he took a year off from football after the 2008 season to study at Oxford University and earn a Masters of Science Degree in Medical Anthropology. Selected by the Titans in the sixth round of the 2010 draft, Rolle didn’t make much of a dent in the NFL, but that didn’t matter. He had bigger goals.

In 2017, Rolle was accepted into the Harvard Medical School neurosurgery program at Massachusetts General Hospital, beginning his residency in June of that year.

“There were lots of emotions rolling through my body while counting down the hours, waiting to open that envelope,” Rolle said then, via the Miami Herald. “I felt much more anxious than I did during the draft.”

Now, with the coronavirus pandemic, Rolle is facing the most important professional and personal battle of his life, and he recently spoke with ESPN about his day-to-day.

“I went down to the emergency department and as I was walking through… I was seeing so many individuals with respiratory distress and respiratory compromise,” Rolle said. “The numbers are staggering. Our neurosurgical floor has been transformed into a floor with just COVID-19 patients. It’s been hectic for sure. Our bedspace and our operating rooms may even be turned into ICUs because there are so many people that are positive with COVID-19, or suspected of having it. Our supplies are limited right now and dwindling.”

It’s a difficult time for everybody, and it’s especially hard for those on the front lines in hospitals and care centers around the world. Much gratitude to those, like Rolle, who are taking that on every day at a level they may never have expected or imagined.