|
RECOMMENDED LINKS
Vivid Seats
Ticket Liquidator
NFL Tickets
 |
||
|
|
Chief Fans Pay Respects to Thomas
Feb. 14, 2000
Kansas City began saying farewell to Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas on Monday.
A daylong procession of misty-eyed fans quietly queued down a row of steps at Arrowhead Stadium and filed past Thomas' open coffin in a white tent in the end zone, where Thomas made so many memorable sacks of John Elway and Jeff George during his 11-year career.
By day's end, the club said 22,750 fans plus teammates, former teammates and members of the Chiefs family paid tribute to Thomas. He died Feb. 8 in Miami of a pulmonary embolism, 16 days after he was paralyzed from the chest down in a single-car accident in Kansas City.
A public memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Kemper Arena before Thomas' body is transported back to his hometown of Miami for burial.
"I just drove by and was kind of shocked at how many cars were already there," Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt said shortly after the visitation began at 9 a.m. "It was typical of the outpouring of support for him.
"This guy really connected. I don't think we all realized that as he played out the 11 years. We all knew he was a great player, an exceptional football talent and the humanitarian things he did through Third and Long. All of those things made for that connection. It was pretty remarkable."
Many of the fans, bundled in Chiefs jackets and No. 58 jerseys, braved a cloudy and brisk morning when the gates opened. Except for a brief period around 10 a.m. and about 1:30 p.m., the stream of fans continued at a rate of more than 1,500 an hour.
Some sat transfixed in the end-zone seats after viewing Thomas, who was dressed in a light gray, Glen plaid suit.
"I was worried the other day when they said it was going to snow," said Barbara Towns, 62, who has visited the makeshift memorial tent outside Arrowhead every day since Thomas died. "I worried his stuff would get wet. Some of the letters and stuff were lying out in the snow, so I put them in the back of the tent so they wouldn't get wet.
"We loved him so much. We're going to miss him. It doesn't seem real. But I'm glad they did this."
A military honor guard flanked the coffin, next to a framed jersey of Thomas, a nine-time Pro Bowl performer, and two large photos of him. Memorable photographs of Thomas were displayed on the JumboTrons in each end zone.
By late morning, the sun broke through in time for a flyover by a B-2 Stealth bomber that whisked by near the top of the stadium at 12:01 p.m. It was a salute to Thomas and his father, Robert, an Air Force captain who was shot down while flying a mission in Vietnam when Derrick was 5 years old.
Hunt, club president Carl Peterson and the front-office staff, head coach Gunther Cunningham, his wife, Rene, assistant coaches and several Chiefs and former Chiefs lined up at the 20-yard line for the flyover. With them was former American League umpire Steve Palermo, who suffered a spinal-cord injury and had counseled Thomas after the accident.
Among Thomas' teammates on hand were Donnie Edwards, Ron George, Marcus Spears, Derrick Ransom, Jerome Woods, Larry Parker, Victor Riley, Ty Parten and James Hasty. They were joined by Chiefs Hall of Famers Otis Taylor and Curtis McClinton and former Chiefs Christian Okoye, Leonard Griffin, Jayice Pearson, Steve Wallace, Tim Barnett and Greg Favors. After the flyover, Thomas' mother, Edith Morgan, and an aunt left Arrowhead by limousine.
Okoye, who accompanied Thomas to two Pro Bowls in the early 1990s, remembered rooming with Thomas on road trips.
"We'd sit on the beds and talk," said Okoye, the NFL's leading rusher in 1989, "and my seeing the impact he was making on the team, and the impact I was making on the team, we'd argue a little bit about who was the best player on the team.
"At the end, we decided we don't play the same position. He's on defense, I'm on offense, so the impact we both made helped the team."
Okoye said Thomas' death already made an impact on his 8-year-old daughter, Christina.
"In the car, she would say, `Daddy, wear your seat belt,' " Okoye said. "She said that to me, and I said, `Wow. This is a big lesson.' Sometimes I forget. She reminded me."
Griffin, a Chiefs defensive end during 1986-93 and now strength coach at Grambling University, was impressed with the turnout at Arrowhead Stadium.
"This is a great tribute and shows what kind of person Derrick was," said Griffin, who was accompanied by his 9-year-old son, Trey. "People loved him, and he genuinely had the same affection for his fans as they had for him.
"He loved kids. He did everything in his power to see to it that if a kid needed something, he would provide it. He was such a role model for most people on the field and off the field."
Children were very much a part of Monday's visitation.
Matt and Sherry Underwood of Leavenworth brought their three children, Zach, 9; Jessica, 5; and Matthew, 2. Barbara Rittel of Lee's Summit brought her son, Alex, 12.
"I wanted my son to see that somebody can achieve greatness in some ways, but it's what they do with it that matters," Rittel said. "I felt like Derrick Thomas was one of those people. It wasn't enough that he became a great football player. I felt like it was the other things that he did that mattered."
If anyone could relate to Thomas' plight, it was former Royals shortstop Fred Patek, whose daughter, Kim, was critically injured July 21, 1992, in an auto accident on Interstate 29. Kim also was paralyzed, and the community rallied to raise funds to defray medical expenses before she died in June 1995 at age 23.
"The thing I think back to most of all is how this community comes back together and all the beautiful people that are in this town," Patek said after paying his respects to Thomas.
"All of the things you see today kind of stir up a lot of things in my past."
from kc star
|
|
|
|
||