Kansas City Tragedies

I can not even begin to imagine the impact of the tragedy in Kansas City last Saturday. Linebacker Javon Belcher took the life of his girlfriend at their home and then his own life at the Chiefs facilities. I just can't understand how things can get so hopeless that an act like that becomes an option. I just can't shake this. Maybe writing about it will help. Part of the reason that it stays with me is that I've been reading Michael MacCambridge's terrific biography of Lamar Hunt. As a result, the Chiefs have been on my mind. When I heard about Belcher I was already reeling by the number of tragedies that have hit the Chiefs since Lamar Hunt founded the team in 1959. They don't seem to end.

In 1963, running back Stone Johnson suffered a broken neck in a preseason game against the Houston Oilers. He later died from complications during surgery. Just two years later, running back Mack Lee Hill ruptured a knee ligament in a game against the Buffalo Bills. Once again a Chiefs player was lost during surgery. Hill developed hypothermia when his body reacted to the anesthesia.  Belcher wasn't the first troubled Chiefs player to arrive at the facilities with a gun. In 1968 Gene Thomas, annoyed about something, arrived with a gun and took an angry, thankfully wild shot at tackle Jim Tyrer. Fortunately, no one was hurt. However, the next Chiefs tragedy would involve Tyrer and would bare similarities to Belcher. Jim Tyrer was one of the finest offensive linemen in professional in the late '60s and early '70s. He protected Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson and opened gaping holes for backs Mike Garrett, Ed Podolak, Jim Otis and the rest of the Chiefs runners. On the field and off the field, Tyrer seemed to have everything in order. In 1980, after his football career ended some of his business decisions didn't go the way he intended. Not being able to handle this he took his wife's life and then his own. He left four children without a parent. In 1983, Pro Bowl running back Joe Delaney tried to save three children that were struggling while swimming in a pond. One child made it out of the water. The other two and Delaney didn't. I remember this incident well. This was my first real experience with an active NFL player dying. Perhaps the players became human to me for the first time. The Chiefs would experience about 17 years of peace following the death of Delaney. Following the 1999 season, linebacker Derrick Thomas was driving far too fast. He had two passengers with him. Thomas and one passenger weren't wearing seat belts. After the accident, the passenger wearing a seat belt walked away uninjured. The other passenger died. Derrick Thomas was paralyzed from the chest down. Two weeks later he developed a pulmonary embolism and died.

I'm simply stunned by so many deaths of active players, or recently active in the case of Tyrer, to hit one team. When Minnesota Vikings tackle Korey Stringer died of complications brought on by heat stroke in 2001, I felt as though I'd lost a loved one. Safety Karl Kassulke was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident in the early '70s but lived another thirty years. That's all the tragedy that I can recall hitting the Vikings. The Chiefs keep getting hit. In the case of Tyrer and Belcher, you wish that you could have somehow reached them before tragedy hit but you never really know what's coming. I hope that the Chiefs find some peace.