Kansas City Chiefs Player Suffers Seizure, Cardiac Arrest

The NFL is gearing up for its 2024-2025 season, with many teams reporting to practice before pre-season, which kicks off in August.

The Kansas City Chiefs have postponed all team activities on Thursday, June 6, after one of its players suffered a seizure and went into cardiac arrest.

According to NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs canceled all team activities scheduled for Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, the Chiefs announced that the day’s OTA session was canceled following a medical emergency at the team facility. Plus, Thursday’s media availability (set for head coach Andy Reid and select players) has been rescheduled for Friday, June 7.

NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported defensive lineman BJ Thompson suffered a seizure during a special teams meeting and went into cardiac arrest.

According to Pelissero, the Kansas City Chiefs’ medical staff moved quickly, and an ambulance was called. Thompson is currently in stable condition.

Selected in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, Thompson has played in a single game for the NFL’s consecutive champions.

Kansas City Chiefs’ BJ Thompson’s medical emergency comes a year and a half after Buffalo Bills’ player Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest mid-game.

As The Blast reported, on January 2, 2023, the 24-year-old NFL player collapsed on the field during the first quarter of the Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Hamlin remained on the ground for several minutes while medical personnel rushed to his aid, performing CPR for nine minutes after his heart stopped.

Hamlin was then loaded into an ambulance and taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs have been in the spotlight a lot lately, with defensive lineman Isaiah Buggs facing accusations of second-degree animal cruelty, wide receiver Rashee Rice turning himself into Texas police after an arrest warrant was issued in connection to a multi-car collision in Dallas, and kicker Harrison Butker’s controversial commencement speech.

“I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother,” he said at one point during the speech, seemingly indicating that women should stay home and become “homemakers” to live out their “vocation.”

Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce have also been in the media — but for different reasons. Mahomes, who is good friends with Kelce, has held many charity events and is a two-time MVP and a three-time Super Bowl champ.

Kelce, who made a name for himself in the NFL world, is now widely known thanks to his relationship with pop icon Taylor Swift.

The duo also announced they will open a modern steakhouse in Kansas City called 1587 Prime, a combination of both players’ jersey numbers. According to PEOPLE Magazine, the restaurant will be an “ultimate experiential dining destination.”

Butker returned to the podium a few weeks later at Regina Caeli Academy, a traditional Catholic school in Nashville, Tennessee, where he spoke again at the “Courage Under Fire” gala. The NFL kicker addressed the controversies surrounding his first speech but did not apologize and reiterated his opinions and beliefs.

“The theme for tonight’s gala, ‘Courage Under Fire,’ was decided many months ago, but it now feels providential that this would be the theme after what we have all witnessed these past two weeks,” he said at the time. “If it wasn’t clear that the timeless Catholic values are hated by many, it is now.”

“Over the past few days, my beliefs, or what people think I believe, have been the focus of countless discussions around the globe. At the outset, many people expressed a shocking level of hate, but as the days went on, even those who disagreed with my viewpoints shared their support for my freedom of religion,” he said, seemingly addressing the comments made by his teammates, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.