Football has taken Jarred Evans around the world.
“That ‘rock’ has made me more cultured,” explained Evans, a former football player at the University of Cincinnati.
In January, however, something far different led him back to America. He was playing for a professional team in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus.
“I was about 5 or 10 miles away from that location,” Evans said. “The way the Chinese government shut down Wuhan, I knew it was serious.”
Evans was able to get out of Wuhan and back to the United States, but not without seven total weeks of quarantine.
He was one of the first Americans quarantined, long before the virus was declared a pandemic.
“I was scared," he said. "I was bleaching my door and wearing double masks. Everybody had to wear it. Mind you, this was fairly new. This is what they told us to do."
While at a military base in California, Evans documented his time there.
“I was doing something I really shouldn’t have been doing, but I knew what was needed to tell people, 'This is what is going on,'” recalled Evans.
Eleven months later, society is still consumed by the pandemic and the world still a much different place than it was a year ago.
“I knew this wasn’t just going to leave," he said. "I warned people, ‘Imagine New York City completely shut down. Nobody in the streets.’ Guess what happened? It happened."
It’s not often we get a true glimpse into the future, but he said that’s exactly what he got. Looking back, the situation makes him feel like a part of world history.
“I felt like I was the guy who told the world: ‘Prepare!’” Evans said. “I kind of had the crystal ball. I saw it through. That’s when I got to my social media. I was trying to say, ‘It’s coming. It really is.'”
