MIAMI -- NFL star Derrick Thomas died Tuesday in a hospital where he was being treated for injuries from a car crash that left him paralyzed from the chest down.
The Kansas City Chiefs said Thomas had a heart attack and efforts to resuscitate him failed. The team did not say what caused the heart attack but doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital were expected to discuss his death later in the day.When team president Carl Peterson visited Thomas on Monday, "he said Derrick was very upbeat . . . and felt so positive," Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt said.
The 33-year-old linebacker was injured Jan. 23 when the speeding car he was driving flipped on an icy road. A friend was killed in the crash.
Thomas, a nine-time Pro Bowl player and one of the game's most feared pass rushers, had been heading to the Kansas City airport with two companions to fly to St. Louis for the NFC title game.
"It is a devastating tragedy to the Kansas City Chiefs family, the people of Kansas City, the fans of the National Football League, and also to me, personally," Peterson said.
Thomas broke his spine and neck in the crash and wound up semiconscious with no feeling in his legs. He was flown to Miami, his hometown, for surgery and rehabilitation.
Doctors decompressed his spinal cord and stabilized the spinal column with screws, rods and hooks and implant bone grafts from Thomas' hip.
The hospital is the home of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the world's largest spinal cord injury research center, and its surgeons have operated on race car driver Emerson Fittipaldi and other athletes.
Thomas and passenger Michael Tellis, 49, of Kansas City, Kan., were not wearing seat belts and were thrown from the car, police said. Tellis was killed instantly and a third passenger who was wearing his seat belt was treated and released.
Thomas was one of the most popular athletes in Kansas City. Flags were lowered to half staff at Arrowhead Stadium. The Missouri Legislature paused for a moment of silence. Thomas' death was announced by Bill Kenney, a state senator and former Chiefs quarterback.
"Derrick Thomas was a true hero," he said.
Kenney urged lawmakers to support a bill for spinal cord research in Missouri.
Thomas holds the NFL one-game record of seven sacks and ranks ninth on the career list. His seven sacks against Seattle in 1990 came on Veterans Day. He dedicated his effort to his father, an Air Force pilot killed in Vietnam.