Nebraska football legend Johnny Rodgers in ICU with COVID

Updated Dec. 6, 2021 1:12 p.m. ET

Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Johnny Rodgers, the 1972 Heisman Trophy winner and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, was in an Omaha hospital intensive care unit Monday with COVID-19.

Rodgers' business partner, Denny Drake, said the Cornhuskers' football great was hospitalized Thanksgiving morning with the virus at Nebraska Medical Center, the

Rodgers, 70, has since improved and is “feeling much better," Drake said.

“He was pretty weak until late yesterday,” Drake told the World-Herald on Sunday. “He called me this morning, and his voice sounded good."

Rodgers did not immediately return a text message left Monday by The Associated Press.

Rodgers, nicknamed “The Jet,” grew up in Omaha, played on Nebraska's national championship teams in 1970-71 and won the Heisman as a senior in 1972.