NEWS
Kansas City Chiefs’ BJ Thompson Suffers Cardiac Arrest During Team Meeting
Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman BJ Thompson reportedly had a seizure during a meeting on June 6, leading the NFL team to cancel all activities for the rest of the day.
There’s been a medical emergency in Chiefs Kingdom.
Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman BJ Thompson had a seizure and went into cardiac arrest on June 6, leading the NFL team to cancel their scheduled activities for the day, according to multiple outlets.
Thompson suffered the seizure during a special team’s meeting, reported NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, citing sources. He was reportedly treated by Chiefs medical staff as an ambulance was called to the scene.
The 27-year-old is now in stable condition, per Pelissero.
The Chiefs were set to complete the final round of voluntary training on the day of Thompson’s medical emergency, but practice has since been postponed until June 7, a team spokesperson told Associated Press.
Thompson joined the Chiefs in 2023 as a fifth-round draft pick. Before his NFL career, the linebacker played college football for Baylor University and Stephen F. Austin State University.
E! News has reached out to reps for Thompson and the Chiefs for comment but hasn’t heard back.
It has been quite the eventful offseason for the Chiefs, who won the 2024 Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers in February. In addition to tight end Travis Kelce’s ongoing romance with Taylor Swift, kicker Harrison Butker made headlines last month for sharing polarizing views on women and the LGBTQ+ community in a Benedictine College commencement speech.
Several of Butker’s teammates spoke out amid the controversy, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes saying he would rather “judge him by the character he shows every single day” than by his speech. “But I understand the person that he is and he’s trying to what he can to lead people in the right direction,” Mahomes told reporters May 22. “That might not be the same values as I have, but at the same time, I’m going to judge him by the character that he shows every single day.”
Butker later defended himself against what he called a “shocking level of hate” against this views. “In my seven years in the NFL, I’ve become familiar with the positive and negative comments, but the majority of them revolve around my performance on the field,” he said at the Courage Under Fire Gala May 24. “But as to be expected, the more I’ve talked about what I value most, which is my Catholic faith, the more polarizing I have become.”
Butker added, “It’s a decision I’ve consciously made and one I do not regret at all.”