Former Texan Demaryius Thomas Dies At Age 33
Demarius Thomas, who won five straight Pro Bowls and one Super Bowl Ring, primarily during his successful career at Denver Broncos, died at the age of 33. Police spokesman Tim Lupo, a police spokesman for Roswell, Georgia, said Thursday night Thomas was found dead at his home on the outskirts of Atlanta.
“According to preliminary information, his death was due to a medical problem, and our investigators now have no reason to believe anything else,” Rupo said in a statement earlier on Friday.
Latonya bonseinur, the first cousin who grew up with Thomas and thought he was a brother, told The Associated Press that the former player’s family believed he had died of a seizure.
The family was notified by Roswell police around 9 pm. EST that they found Thomas in the shower at his house.
“We believe he had seizures for over a year and had seizures while taking a shower,” Bonseignolle said earlier on Friday. “I don’t know when he died. I talked to him only yesterday.”
She said, “He was alone and his friend couldn’t contact him, so he keyed for these seizures. Calling his driver who has, he went to his apartment and found him in the shower. “
Thomas played last in the NFL in 2019 and played in 11 games that started 10 times at the New York Jets. He officially announced his resignation in June of this year.
While he put up huge numbers after the Broncos signed quarterback Peyton Manning in 2012, Thomas` best-known catch came the previous season.
On the first play of overtime in an AFC playoff game, he broke free over the middle and hauled in an 80-yard touchdown from Tim Tebow to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in an AFC playoff game.
A native of Montrose, a tiny town in southeast Georgia, Thomas managed to make his mark collegiately as a receiver at Georgia Tech even after the school hired Paul Johnson to replace Chan Gailey as a coach.
Ditching Gailey`s pro-style offense, Johnson installed the run-oriented scheme that had been so successful for him at lower-division Georgia Southern.
Despite a huge dropoff in the number of passes, the Yellow Jackets threw, Thomas was often left in single coverage and managed to show off the skills that would lead the Broncos to take him with the No. 22 overall pick in the 2010 draft.
Thomas finished his career at Georgia Tech with 120 receptions for 2,339 yards and 14 touchdowns in three seasons. With Manning, Thomas gave Broncos a lot of flashy numbers. This began in the dazzling 2012 season (94 catches at 1,434 yards, 10 touchdowns) and led to the first honor of a Pro Bowl honor student five times in a row.
He made more than 100 catches twice in a season, highlighting his 2014 career-best of 111 catches and 1,619 yards. He has exceeded 1,000 yards for five consecutive seasons.
At Mannings last year, Broncos defeated Carolina in the Super Bowl to win the 2015 season. The Broncos reached the Super Bowl in the 2013 season, recording the highest number of attacks in NFL history. However, despite Thomas setting a Super Bowl record at 13 receptions totaling 118 yards, they were beaten by the Seattle Seahawks 438 and went down in the title game.
“If we were all playing like him, we would have won,” moaned Denver’s general manager John Elway.
When Broncos returned to the Super Bowl, Thomas’ mother had the opportunity to meet him in person rather than in prison.
Katina Smith refused to testify to her life-imprisoned mother, Minnie Pearl Thomas. After that, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Both were later released by President Barack Obama as part of an initiative to reduce the number of nonviolent drug offenders.
When Smith was released from prison, the first person to ask his son was the Sony Walkman.
“I don’t even know if the Walkman can be found now,” Thomas told her.
He got her an iPhone for her. It wasn’t long before she sent text messages like a teenager and called her son all the time. One of Thomas’ teammates in the Super Bowl championship was shocked by the news of his premature death.
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