Greg Olsen unplugged: On TJ’s heart transplant, TEU and another Panther wearing 88

Former star NFL tight end Greg Olsen has had a tumultuous few months since he retired on a one-day contract as a Carolina Panther in March.

Most importantly, Olsen’s 8-year-old son TJ is doing well after undergoing a heart transplant June 4th in Charlotte.

Olsen also co-hosted the first “Tight End University” in Nashville in late June, with the initial “TEU’ featuring 49 current NFL tight ends. And Olsen is preparing for his new job as a full-time Fox Sports NFL broadcaster in September.

He talked about all of that in an exclusive interview with me Monday for The Charlotte Observer, as well as how he felt when he learned rookie Panthers wide receiver Terrace Marshall Jr. would be wearing Olsen’s old No. 88 jersey this season.

This Q-and-A with Olsen has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Scott Fowler: First of all, how is TJ doing?

Greg Olsen: He’s doing good. He’s had an unbelievable recovery. He’s feeling good. He’s been home almost three weeks. He’s starting to get his strength back and to get a little more active. It’s been quite a journey.

SF: You and your wife Kara have been very generous sharing TJ’s story for his entire life. Why have you felt led to do that?

GO: From the day TJ was born, we’ve always been willing to share our struggles. I just think it’s important for people to not only hear from you when you’re on top of the world, right? The reality and humanity of it is that a lot of people do have tough times. And I think sometimes people think they are the only ones going through tough times.

So to share TJ’s story, that has connected us with so many other stories of hope and heartache throughout the country. That’s why we do it, to show people: ‘Hey, you’re not alone out there. There are a lot of people that are struggling. There’s a lot of people that are having hard times. But you can get through it, and TJ is a great example of that.’

We also want to specifically shine a light on congenital heart disease and what a serious issue it is for these kids throughout the country going through it, and at the same time highlight our own program here (The HEARTest Yard) and Levine Children’s Hospital, which is such a special place to us.

SF: I understand you don’t know anything about the actual donor of TJ’s new heart. Will you ever?

GO: UNOS (United Network of Organ Sharing) is the governing body who oversees all organ transplantation in America. It’s regulated and independent and manages all of this anonymously.

None of the personal information about the donor or the recipient is part of the factors (for getting a transplant). It’s an algorithm based on blood type, size, pre-existing conditions, antibody scores, things like that.

So we don’t know where the heart came from. Not the gender, the age or the circumstances. And the donor family doesn’t know who received it.

I’m sure at some point — especially if TJ wants to — we will write a letter to the agency. UNOS would pass it to the donor family and, if that family chose to, it could engage with us. Some people do. Some people don’t. Some people take time — it’s a wide array of responses. We’re going to let TJ decide as to if and when to write that letter; right now we’re letting him settle in a little.

Hosting Tight End University

SF: Amid all this, you somehow were able to co-host the first-ever “Tight End University” in Nashville along with current star NFL tight ends George Kittle and Travis Kelce. How did that go?

GO: It was a huge success. We had 49 guys who came to Nashville for 2 ½ days. We had awesome presentations in the classroom. And then we got really good work out on the field. We did a cool kids camp with the Boys & Girls Club and were able to donate $50,000 from some of the proceeds we had raised. So overall, the guys were super-engaged. I think they learned a lot. We are hopeful it can be an annual summer event.

SF: Where did the idea for “Tight End University” come from?

GO: I’d gotten to know Kittle and Kelce pretty well over the years. Kittle and I share a marketing agent. So right after I retired (following the 2020 season, which Olsen played in Seattle), he just texted me congratulations and said, ‘If you ever make your way down to Nashville this summer, I’d love to work with you.’

He trains with 5-6 other tight ends over the summer in Nashville. I said I’d love to and from there it just kind of grew to: ‘I wonder if we can get a few more guys? How about if we get Kelce involved? Could we have a little tight end camp?’

Then so many guys started pouring in that we needed to pay for it. So we got Body Armor and Bridgestone and Charmin and some corporations that wanted to be part of it. Next year we’ll have more time to plan and we’ll aim for that end of June time frame again.

A new #88 for Panthers

SF: Terrace Marshall Jr., the Carolina Panthers’ rookie receiver and second-round draft pick out of LSU, will wear No. 88 for the team in 2021. What did you think about that when you first heard about it?

GO: You know I’ll be honest, I had mixed feelings about it. Donnie (Toner) in the (Panthers’) equipment room texted me and kind of gave me a heads up.

My whole thing was I didn’t want the kid to feel any pressure from me. That was his number (Marshall wore 88 in college). That’s what he wanted. I’ve heard he’s a great kid. I don’t have any animosity. I’m glad he’s going to wear it and hopefully he’s a great player. I have no ill will.

I’ll be honest, though — in the beginning I was like: I don’t know. It seemed kind of quick.

But that’s the way it goes. I wish nothing but the best for the kid. I was talking to Coach (Matt) Rhule at a golf outing and said, ‘Hey, I hope he (Marshall) plays well. I hope he does great. Just let him know that there’s a lot of balls that have been caught in that number. So you better go out and catch the ball.’

SF: You’ve dabbled in sports broadcasting before but you are jumping in with both feet starting in September with Fox. Who’s your TV broadcasting partner and will you do a full slate of games?

GO: I will do a full slate of games as part of Fox’s No. 2 NFL team, working with (play-by-play man) Kevin Burkhardt. I had been calling a couple of mock games, and then things went silent there with everything going on with TJ.

Every weekend I will be somewhere else in the fall. I’m hoping the Panthers have a good season so that a couple of the games we do can be in Charlotte. It will be cool and I’m really looking forward to it.

SF: I know you are heavily involved in coaching your children and other kids in Charlotte-based youth sports, including baseball, football and basketball. What is your coaching persona?

GO: (Laughs) I should probably let my wife answer that question. In all sports, we work with the kids with the same ideas that I try to teach my own kids. Things aren’t easy. It’s going to be hard. And we’re going to challenge the hell out of you guys. We’re going to find the best teams to play against. And we’re going to deal with adversity and we’re going to push you hard in practice, but we’re also going to give you an awesome experience.

When we travel out of town, we’re going to do a lot of fun things. We’re going to wear custom uniforms. We’re going to drive to games in a van. We’re going to make it fun, but we’re also going to demand a lot. It’s not just, ‘Let’s just run around and hope things go well, and then we’ll go for pizza.’ It’s like: ‘If we’re going to put all this time into it, let’s do it the right way.’

But I think the kids have learned to love it. And I think the families have learned to love it. It’s been very fulfilling to me. We’ve started our own (baseball) travel program and it’s been super fun. We’ll go to Florida next week for a big national tournament. This is 10-and-under baseball. Tate, my older son, plays first base and some centerfield and pitches a little (TJ also has a twin sister, Talbot). We’ve got a good little team.

TJ will ‘do normal kid stuff’ with new heart

SF: I know some of the local youth baseball teams have worn lime green armbands to honor TJ, and some of the uptown buildings were lit up in that color, too, recently. Why lime green exactly?

GO: That’s just TJ’s favorite color. And so many local baseball teams have worn them. The big rivals around town that we compete against every week wore them. The number of people who joined in on ‘Play for TJ’ — it was a lot, and that meant a lot to TJ.

And then Duke Energy lit up lime green and Dave Tepper (the Carolina Panthers’ owner) -- he lit up the stadium green. What was weird about all that was it turned out to be the day that TJ had his heart transplant. And they didn’t know that in advance. Crazy timing.

SF: What will TJ’s next few weeks and months look like?

GO: The main issue with heart transplantation is obviously the fear of rejection by your body. Your body doesn’t love having an outside organ to live inside of you. So there’s a lot of anti-rejection stuff we have to be very careful about during these first six months to a year or so.

TJ kind of needs to live under COVID protocols. When he’s inside around people, he’s got to wear a mask. If he’s outside, it’s fine. He will need to stay away from large crowds. For the first year, all that is to keep his immune system from getting attacked.

SF: What will TJ’s life be like eventually with his new heart?

GO: TJ had three open-heart surgeries as a baby (due to his congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome), and those surgeries made his heart operate as a single ventricle. In essence, he had half of a heart, which as we always knew was not an ideal anatomy for anyone.

Now some families we have talked to say that after the transplant their kids feel better than they ever have. Because TJ and all the kids like him — they don’t know what normal is.

They’ve never lived a day with a normal heart, until now. So that’s the hope we have clung to, once we kind of got through the initial shock of (TJ needing a heart transplant at age 8). It’s going to be a long journey. But once we get there, he will have a better life.

His life will be relatively normal. There will be some modifications about what he can and can’t eat and what he can and can’t play, but nothing overly earth-shattering.

TJ will go to school. He’ll play on his baseball team. He’ll do normal kid stuff. And it will be awesome.