This High School Wrestler Has No Reason To Be Upset That He Got A Vile Case Of Herpes From The Mat

ABC- A South Bay high school athlete says he got herpes from a wrestling mat. Now he wants a weekend tournament postponed to protect other students.

Blake Flovin says he was diagnosed with herpes gladiatorum, caused by the herpes virus..

Flovin thinks he contracted the virus while wrestling at a tournament at Independence High School in San Jose last month.

He's concerned he could have spread the infection to other wrestlers during recent practice sessions.

Now he wants officials to postpone this weekend's state tournament until the incubation period for the exposed athletes is over.

"Either they need to be stopped from wrestling or the state tournament needs to be postponed. Just trying to prevent this disease from getting to other people," he says.

"Kids going to the state tournament, if it's to goes on, they should know about the risks of this and what they could be exposed to," Flovin's mother, Rena, says.

Herpes gladiatorum is a lifelong infection that can flare up after the initial outbreak.

It's prevalent in the wrestling community.




Wrestling giveth, and wrestling taketh away. Hey, if there was no risk involved with getting hot and handsy with another dude in spandex then everybody would do it. Well, I guess that's not exactly true, but you catch my drift. Football players play football realizing they could be eating through a straw by their mid-20's. Hockey players choose hockey knowing that all their incisors might end up as implants. Baseball players take to the diamond knowing they'll probably have to stick a needle in their ass and jeopardize the size of their scrotum if they want to remain competitive. One time an NBA player ended up with HIV so I have no choice but to say that basketball might give you AIDS. Did you think wrestling was free from sacrifice? Probably should have looked into the hazards before getting your face dragged through another man's herpes-ridden ball sweat.

Look on the bright side, it's not ringworm. Isn't that a thing that 100% of wrestlers always end up with at some point? Is that even a bright side? I know herpes is forever, but I honestly couldn't tell you if ring worm is worse. I have never had to worry about it because I have never thrown on the head gear and gotten down and dirty with another scantily clad athlete in - what is apparently - a festering pit of STD's. I guess this tournament should probably close down shop and bleach the mats about 16 times over just to rid themselves of any liability, but let's not pretend that one postponement is going to get rid of the spread of skin eating viruses in wrestling. Dick diseases are always going to run rampant in a sport in which genitals and faces are so often only separated by a layer of perspiration. You just got to make sure that participants know that beforehand.