Buffalo Bills co-owner Kim Pegula made a surprising appearance at the team’s training camp, marking her first public sighting since suffering cardiac arrest 14 months ago.
Pegula, 54, watched the team practice from her SUV on Sunday, according to reports, and she was greeted by players like quarterback Josh Allen, whom she had a brief check-in with.
Pegula’s daughter Jessica — currently the No. 4 women’s tennis player in the world, according to the WTA — indicated that we might be seeing her mother more often as she continues her road to recovery.
“I think it’s kind of the next step for us as a family — how much this year she wants to be around all the action and the games,” Pegula said of her mother to the Associated Press on Sunday.
“I mean, I know she does, but it’s almost like if we’re ready for that to happen.”
Jessica Pegula reportedly wasn’t able to speak with her mother following the practice, but did speak with her father, who said Kim was “very happy to be” back at a Bills practice for the first time in over a year.
“I’m glad she’s able to kind of go out and enjoy things more,” Pegula said of her mother. “It’s been a tough year. It’s nice for her and nice for everyone around to just see that she’s doing well.”
Pegula was initially undergoing care for her medical event in June 2022, which Jessica wrote about in The Players’ Tribune this past February, detailing the cardiac arrest experience and recovery.
“A few days after I got home, I got a call around midnight [on my mom’s birthday] from my sister Kelly who was staying at my parents’ house,” she wrote in the piece. “Something was wrong with our mom, and she was headed to the hospital in an ambulance. My mom was asleep when my dad woke up to her going into cardiac arrest and she was unresponsive for quite a while.
“My sister gave her CPR until the ambulance arrived. She saved her life,” she continued. “Even though she doesn’t like to take credit for this terrible situation, she absolutely saved her life, followed by the critical job performed by the paramedics who arrived and were able to restore a heartbeat.”
The Bills begin preseason against the Indianapolis Colts on Aug. 12.
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