Pro Football Hall of Famer, and former Patriots linebacker, Andre Tippett has lost his mother and stepfather due to complications with COVID-19.
Willie Lovett, Tippett’s stepfather, died last Tuesday and Tippett’s mother, Frances Tippett Lovett, died last Saturday, just four days after the death of her husband.
Both were 79 years old and living in New Jersey.
“We’ve mourned, we’re still mourning,” Tippett said to Steve Buckley of The Athletic. “But I’m feeling stronger because there have been so many people who’ve reached out. I’ve gotten a lot of strength just from the support. My wife and I have received so many calls from friends who have sent along their condolences and things like that. It has helped us a lot.”
Tipett's son, Cody, who plays defensive back for Towson University in Maryland, also tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-quarantining at home with family.
“I know this is going on all over the world,” Tippett said. “But someone asked me two months ago, or maybe six weeks ago, if I knew anybody that had been touched by that. And I remember saying, ‘No. But God forbid that anything like that would happen in my family.’ And I thought that nothing would happen. Next thing I know, I get the call that my step-dad is in the hospital for a heart procedure, and he ends up being tested positive,” he said. “And my mother was at the hospital, and now she’s feeling like she was at a sauna. And they had to keep her there.
“She had a heart condition as well, and on top of that, with the antibiotics and all the things they were trying to do, neither one of them could make it. They both went comatose. So it was a very tough time for us.”
The Pro Football Hall of Famer still works in the Patriots organization as the executive director of community affairs and he's proud for what it did to help fight the pandemic with getting masks and other equipment to hospitals in multiple states.
“I know what the Patriots were doing to help all the doctors and nurses and the many other people who are out there in the front lines battling this health crisis,” he said. “You always have an appreciation for what those people are doing.
“But then when you go through it … my mother was in the hospital, and they did everything they could. My brothers were giving me reports every day of what they were doing, that they were trying, that they were doing this, they were doing that. At the end, it just wasn’t enough. My mother’s heart wasn’t strong enough. And it was the same with my step-dad. On top of everything they were fighting this virus.”
The family is planning a memorial later in the year when everyone is able to get together again.
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