KANSAS CITY, Mo. —The Kansas City Chiefs still found ways to enjoy themselves as they keep a hospitalized teammate heavy on their hearts.
The Chiefs canceled practice on Thursday following a medical emergency involving defensive end BJ Thompson. While in team meetings, Thompson suffered a seizure and went into cardiac arrest.
He is now at the hospital in stable condition.
Several Chiefs players spent Thursday evening at Legends Field as part of the 2nd annual Kansas City charity softball game that raised more than $200,000.
Chiefs team chaplain, Father Richard Rocha, held a moment of prayer for Thompson at the game.
The team asked reporters to let head coach Andy Reid address Thompson’s situation on Friday when the team wraps up their voluntary offseason workouts instead of asking players about the situation at the game on Thursday.
When reporters spoke to defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo at the softball game, he volunteered to speak about Thompson before taking any questions.
“Let me say this before I say anything, I’m thinking about BJ right now,” Spagnuolo said. “It was scary. I think the guys were a little bit scared, I know I was. But a lot of praying and [head athletic trainer] Rick [Burkholder] and his staff did a terrific job.”
Spagnuolo said he wasn’t in the room when it happened because it happened during a special teams meeting.
“But everybody you know, to a man to a person to a woman, because we have some female trainers, they were terrific, they did a great job. So we’ll keep our fingers crossed. I’ll let Andy handle the rest of that.”
The 27-year-old Thompson was a fifth-round pick of the Chiefs out of Stephen F. Austin in last year’s draft.
The only game Thompson appeared in was their regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Chargers when Kansas City already had clinched its playoff spot and the outcome was meaningless. Thompson had two tackles in that game.