While he knows it may have been why some teams were scared off in the draft last month, Cleveland Browns linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah insisted again on Friday that his "heart is 100% healthy."
Owusu-Koramoah, a former Notre Dame standout, slid hard in the draft down to the No. 52 overall pick. Days after the draft, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Owusu-Koramoah had a heart issue.
"You can see [my heart is healthy] going through the protocol, going through the tests, going through the EKGs and going through the past MRIs and things like that," he said, via the Akron Beacon Journal. "It's not an issue. It's not something I'm worried about."
Owusu-Koramoah cleared by doctors
Owusu-Koramoah said Friday that something had been detected by NFL doctors in Indianapolis at the draft combine, but that he was eventually cleared fully. Schefter's report, he said, was "based on something that's not necessarily 100% true."
"It starts from something that really was based on the combine and some of their testing and what they saw," Owusu-Koramoah said, via the Akron Beacon Journal. "But we have doctors here in the Cleveland Browns [organization] that I was just speaking to yesterday in terms of those same reports that [doctors before] the draft saw. The reports look fine. The EKGs look fine."
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Owusu-Koramoah won the 2020 ACC Defensive Player of the Year award and the Butkus Award, which is given to the country's top linebacker. He finished with 62 tackles and an interception last season with the Fighting Irish, and was widely expected to be a first round draft pick.
He said Friday that the slide into the second round wasn't that difficult to endure during the draft, and that he's now just trying to push it out of his mind.
"What round I go in, I can't control that. How I react to the situation, I can control that," he said, via the Akron Beacon Journal. "The heart thing going out in the reports, I can't control that. But how I react to that, I can. That's something I'm really keying in on, just how I react to certain things, not allowing them to get to me.
"When you're motivated by the external things, those things can fade away. So whether that report is out there, it'll fade away soon. Whether the second round is out there, it'll fade away soon. A lot of great people in the NFL were [drafted in] worse rounds than me. Some people went [undrafted]. So I just really key in on the things that I can control."
© Provided by Yahoo! SportsJeremiah Owusu-Koramoah was projected to be a first round pick in the draft last month, but slid after a reported heart issue was discovered. (Roy K. Miller/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images)
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