On Thursday, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker B.J. Thompson suffered a seizure during a team meeting and it’s kicker Harrison Butker that is being praised for altering medical personnel in the training room.
He “immediately ran” toward that space and grabbed assistant athletic trainers Julie Frymyer and David Glover — as well as vice president of sports performance and medicine Rick Burkholder — to assist, and other medical professionals later joined them, Burkholder told reporters, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
“As a team, we tried to stabilize BJ and put him on the floor while he was still seizing,” Burkholder said. “Then he went into cardiac arrest. Our team of that group of people provided CPR for him, he had one AD shock and came back so he was only in cardiac arrest for less than a minute — minute and a half.
“Our players, our security staff, everybody involved, coaches and staff, they were phenomenal in handling the crisis.”
Thompson suffered the seizure and went into cardiac arrest during a special teams meeting, which led to the Chiefs canceling the rest of the team activities Thursday before resuming OTAs today (Friday).
Thompson was “awake and responsive” Friday, just over 12 hours after his agent told NFL Network in another statement that Thompson hadn’t regained consciousness yet but was stable.
He was on a ventilator overnight, according to Burkholder, and the Chiefs had just, by chance, practiced their emergency action plan Monday — something they’re required to do multiple times each season.
Thompson was a fifth-round pick out of Stephen F. Austin in 2023, and he recorded two tackles during his only appearance — a Week 18 win — last year.
“We don’t have a diagnosis, and in medicine sometimes you don’t have that,” Burkholder said. “And then like I said, he’s awake and he’s alert, and he’s headed in the absolute right direction.”
As for Butker, he’s come under scrutiny following a controversial commencement speech at Benedictine College.
