If you’re going to the Chiefs game against the Denver Broncos on Sunday and you still have your #58 Derrick Thomas jersey in your dresser drawer or closet, the Chiefs would like you to wear it.
In an announcement posted on the Chiefs official web site, www.kcchiefs.com, the team is asking fans to help honor one of the truly great players in the team’s history on Sunday and recognize his accomplishments both on and off the field.
The team will officially retire Thomas’ #58 jersey during a halftime ceremony, and representatives from the Pro Football Hall of Fame will make a special presentation to the family of the legendary Kansas City linebacker.
Thomas, who tragically died on February 8, 2000 from injuries suffered in a car accident in January of that year, was enshrined as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2009 in Canton, Ohio on August 8th. He is the 10th player in the teams’ history to have his jersey retired.
Thomas joins K Jan Stenerud (3), QB Len Dawson (16), CB Emmitt Thomas (18), RB Abner Haynes (28), RB Stone Johnson (33), RB Mack Lee Hill (36), LB Willie Lanier (63), LB Bobby Bell (78) and DT Buck Buchanan (86) to receive this honor from the club.
The year after his death, Thomas was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame and the club’s Most Valuable Player Award was subsequently renamed in his honor as the Derrick Thomas Award. Carl Peterson, the team’s President and General Manager at the time had an especially close relationship with Thomas and gave a beautiful speech at Thomas’ Hall of Fame induction last summer. Even some of Peterson’s harshest critics acknowledged that the speech was heartfelt, funny and poignant.
Off the field, Thomas was a fixture in the KC community. His “Third and Long Foundation” is going stronger than ever in its 20th year of existence with Thomas’ best friend and former teammate, Neil Smith, taking over as the face of the organization. Because of his community work, Thomas won the 1993 Edge NFL Man of the Year Award, the 1993 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, the 1994 Genuine Heroes Award, the 1995 Bryon “Whizzer” White Humanitarian Award, the 1999 Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall of Fame Award, and was named as the 832nd Point of Light of President George H. W. Bush’s “A Thousand Points of Light”.
In June of 2001, the Derrick Thomas Academy, a tuition-free public charter school was launched in Kansas City, MO and is the first-ever public elementary school named after an NFL player.
And, on Sunday, Metcalf Bank, the official banking partner of the Kansas City Chiefs, will honor Thomas’ philanthropic legacy by making it possible for nearly 200 area students to attend Sunday’s game. They will donate 120 tickets to the Derrick Thomas Academy for Sunday’s game and 72 tickets for students from the “Third and Long Foundation.”
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