Former Tennessee Safety Played Senior Season With Muscle Disease

Former Tennessee safety Trevon Flowers played his final collegiate season with myositis, he shared on his Instagram Tuesday.

Myositis is a disease where your immune system attacks your muscles, making them weaker and potentially leading to swelling.

“I guess it’s time to update the world on what I’ve been going through,” Flowers wrote. “These past months been some of the hardest of my life💯. I recently was diagnosed with something called myositis. Myositis in shorter words, is weakness and inflammation to the muscles in my body and basically my body was fighting against itself. This disease attacked my body so fast, I didn’t understand why I was feeling the I was.”

Flowers didn’t learn he had myositis until after the 2022 football season but played the entirety of his final collegiate season with the disease.

“I played my last football season not even knowing what I was dealing with,” Flowers wrote. “I knew something wasn’t right, because I didn’t feel like the player I know I am, but I continued to push through. It took months just to figure out what was going on, I had 0 answers. Good news is, after I found out what was going on, I started my treatment asap.”

Despite not being at 100% during his final collegiate season, Flowers started at safety for Tennessee. Flowers totaled 57 tackles, a crucial sack in overtime against Pittsburgh, two forced fumbles and a pair of interceptions.

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The Atlanta native was one of Tennessee’s best defensive backs in his super senior season, making huge plays in a number of games— particularly against Pitt.

No one drafted Flowers in the 2023 NFL Draft which came as little surprise. What was surprising was that Flowers didn’t sign an undrafted free agent deal with any team to go through rookie camp. Flowers’ myositis diagnosis explains why he didn’t sign with anyone following the draft.

“During my treatment, which I started back in February, I was unable to do any extraneous workouts,” Flowers wrote. “I was unable to participate in any senior bowls, workouts, or even pro day. Good news is I was recently cleared to start working out again! No matter what, I’ll forever keep my faith. I know God has the last say so! My head high and I’ll forever stand on 10! God does give his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers. I’m just a walking testimony! No matter how things may go, I will be back stronger than ever, believe that!”

Flowers is now looking to sign with a team before training camp, giving himself a chance to compete and make someone’s 55-man roster.

In five seasons at Tennessee, Flowers totaled 129 tackles, five tackles for loss, eight pass deflections and five interceptions.