One morning the following week, Vargas phone buzzed. It was a text message from one of the team doctors, instructing him to arrive at the facility at 2 p.m. that day to pick up some drugs to aid his recovery. Theyll make you feel better, he remembers the message saying. Varga hesitated.
My first impulse reaction: What are the drugs? Im not just taking things. Im smarter than that.
...
Varga said he spoke with a Colts team doctor he wont say who and explained that he wasnt going to take a drug he knew nothing about. The drug in question was Amantadine, which the doctor said, according to Varga, is commonly prescribed to players whove suffered a concussion. You should definitely take it, Varga remembers the doctor telling him. (The Colts do not discuss individual players injuries and declined to comment on the Varga situation.)
Varga said he wanted to know more. He reached out to a handful of doctors he knew from Yale and asked for advice.
They got back to me within five minutes, he says. And all of them were like, Dont take that.
What Varga learned: Amantadine was developed to treat Parkinson's disease. Most concussion experts acknowledge the drug is sometimes used to treat concussionlike symptoms, but after hearing from his own doctors, Varga wanted nothing to do with it. The side effects were what scared him most.
The worst case, they told me, were some psychotic reactions like schizophrenia, he says. And you just cant stop taking it. You up the dosage until youre symptom-free. Thats my understanding of it. It sounded pretty scary to me.
So he called the Colts team doctor back, told him he wasnt taking Amantadine and told him why.
It sounds like you got some good advice, Varga says the doctor told him. You should go with your gut.
So he did. And about 45 minutes later, Vargas phone buzzed again. The Colts wanted to see him. They were putting him on injured reserve.
