Thomas played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, where he won the Butkus Award, and was selected fourth overall by Kansas City in the 1989 NFL draft.

During his career, he received nine Pro Bowl and two first-team All-Pro selections, and set the single-game sacks record.

After the Chiefs' 1999 season, Thomas was rendered paraplegic by a car crash and died two weeks later from a pulmonary embolism.

[2] His father, Air Force Captain and B-52 pilot Robert James Thomas, died during a mission in the Vietnam War when Derrick was five years old.

[9] He would finish the season with what would prove to be a career high 20 sacks, setting a franchise record that stood until it was broken by Justin Houston in 2014.

In what would be the final game of his career, as he would die 37 days later, the Chiefs played their rival the Oakland Raiders.

Police reports indicated that Thomas, who was driving, was speeding at approximately 70 mph even though snow and ice were rapidly accumulating on the roadway.

The morning of February 8, 2000, while being transferred from his hospital bed to a wheelchair on his way to therapy, Thomas told his mother he was not feeling well.

His eyes then rolled back, recalled Frank Eismont, an orthopedic surgeon at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Eismont said Thomas went into cardiorespiratory arrest and died as a result of a pulmonary embolism, a massive blood clot that developed in his legs and traveled to his lungs.

[17] Months later, Thomas's family sued General Motors for $73 million in damages stemming from the accident.

The foundation's mission is to "sack illiteracy" and change the lives of 9- to 13-year-old urban children facing challenging and life-threatening situations in the Kansas City area.

[citation needed] The Derrick Thomas Academy, a charter school in Kansas City, Missouri, opened in September 2001.