Tie knot aficionado and factorback champion Merril Hoge revealed on ESPN today that he’ll be taking some time off to undergo heart surgery. Hoge said he’d miss about a month and joked about trying to beat Ben Roethlisberger back to action. To most of us, that’s quite the scary scenario, but Hoge was talking about it as if it was a minor inconvenience. If there’s one thing about Hoge you can’t question, it’s his toughness – both on the football field and in his past battle with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Here’s the exchange with Trey Wingo and Tim Hasselbeck on ESPN right at the conclusion of NFL Primetime:
I can’t imagine handling that kind of news with that kind of composure. Hoge’s colleague Trey Wingo confirmed the statement on Twitter.
@AaronNagler yes
— trey wingo (@wingoz) September 28, 2015
Here’s a statement from ESPN to AA about Hoge’s condition:
As he mentioned on the air today … Merril is having heart surgery to repair a vessel. The procedure has been planned for several weeks. His health is strong and he has great doctors. He expects to make a full recovery and will be out several weeks.
We wish Merril a speedy recovery and look forward to having him back on our NFL coverage later this fall.
Our best to Merril Hoge and seconded on the hopes for a speedy recovery and return to television.
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