Diagnosis a partial picture of star’s pain
Seizures muddle the role CTE had in Thomas’ death
DUBLIN, Ga. — Demaryius Thomas’ parents see their son every day.
A painting of the former NFL star rests against a wall in Katina Smith’s home, and Bobby Thomas, his father, keeps the same image on his cellphone. It depicts a cherished moment that now seems foreboding: The two beaming parents flank their son in the moments after his Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50 as Demaryius looks downward with a pained expression, scratching the back of his head.
The receiver had been leveled by Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly during the game and had a headache so bad that he missed most of the parties after the victory.
“He was like, ‘Hey, y’all, I need to leave and go by myself because I don’t feel too good,’ ” Smith recounted. “And so, you know, he left and didn’t even finish celebrating or anything like that.”
Demaryius Thomas died in December at 33, mere months after retiring from a Pro Bowl career in the NFL in which his charisma, humility and teamfirst ethos on the field made him a favorite of teammates and fans. Those closest to him said his behavior became increasingly erratic in the last year of his life, which was marked by the memory loss, paranoia and isolation that are hallmarks of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head hits.
On Tuesday, doctors from Boston University announced Thomas was posthumously diagnosed with Stage 2 CTE, but his life and death were also complicated by seizures brought on
by a 2019 car crash. They attacked with little or no warning and led Thomas to wreck other cars and fall down steps. The coroner’s office in Fulton County, Ga., has not yet ruled on the cause of his death, but doctors in Boston said he most likely died of suffocation after a seizure.
“He had two different conditions in parallel,” said Dr. Ann Mckee, the neuropathologist who studied Thomas’ brain. She added that seizures were not generally associated with CTE.
Stage 2 CTE is associated with “progressive behavior, cognitive and mood abnormalities.”
Because of the dual conditions, Thomas’ CTE diagnosis does not bring the neat clarity that has punctuated other NFL players’ demises. His family, friends and former teammates will not know how much football is responsible for Thomas’ struggles and are only now coming to grips with the extent to
which he suffered.
“It amazes me now when we talk about how a young man that age can be in so much pain but still smile,” said Carlos Jones, Thomas’ pastor who was with him when a seizure caused Thomas to fall down the steps in his home in early 2021. “It was just a testament of how strong he was.”
Football changed the trajectory of Thomas’ life, his achievements on the field helping to stabilize his family that was fractured during his adolescence.
Thomas was born on Christmas Day, 1987, in Montrose, Ga., a speck of a town between Macon and Savannah. Katina was 15 when she gave birth to him, and she never married Bobby, who joined the Army and was often away.
When Thomas was 11, federal agents burst into the family’s home with a search warrant and found money connected to a drug ring led by Smith’s mother,
Minnie Pearl Thomas. They arrested Smith for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and after she refused to testify against her mother, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Minnie Pearl Thomas was given a life sentence.
Thomas bounced from home to home for a couple of years before settling with Bobby Thomas’ sister, Shirley, and her husband, James. Schoolmates bullied Thomas because his mother was in prison, but he found solace and affirmation in track, football and basketball. In sports, overcoming pain was a key to his success.
Denver drafted Thomas 22nd overall in 2010, the first receiver taken that year, and his career skyrocketed when quarterback Peyton Manning arrived in 2012, the first of five consecutive years in which he had 1,000 or more receiving yards. Thomas became a mentor to many teammates and was a favorite teammate for his affable workmanlike approach to the game.
As high as football lifted Thomas, it also contributed in some measure to his rapid decline. In the years after that high-water mark shown in the painting, Manning retired and Thomas’ injuries piled up. Smith said her son told her that his peripheral vision was diminished.
In 2019, Thomas had been driving 70 mph in a 30-mph zone in Denver when he lost control and flipped his car multiple times. His head cracked the windshield, and the Jaws of Life were needed to remove him from the vehicle.
Thomas played a final, desultory season with the New York Jets, then went home to Georgia, his life at a crossroads. He was not under contract and was unsure about playing during the pandemic, yet he was determined to get another 237 yards to reach 10,000 career receiving yards. So he worked out five days a week, but his comeback was stalled by seizures that began in the fall of 2020.
In a video announcing his retirement in June last year, Thomas acknowledged he was trying to find his way. He said he was still deciding what to do next and looked to build relationships with anyone who could help. “It ain’t easy leaving football,” he said. “Because that’s my main thing, just trying to find self and put out love.”
Thomas made plans to launch a foundation to help single mothers. He had earned $75 million playing football and invested some of that in various businesses. He wanted to build a compound where his entire family could live.
But he also isolated himself and was taken advantage of by former friends.
His parents said Thomas stopped returning their text messages and calls, and his father recalled his paranoia grew to the point that he never left home without a gun.
After Thomas died Dec. 9, family members found that cash, guns and football memorabilia had been stolen from his home. Police arrested several men who had been hangers-on during the last year of his life.
Thomas’ parents are just now finding catharsis in talking about their son. Smith is helping Dublin city officials plan Demaryius Thomas Day on July 16, during which residents will release 88 balloons — Thomas’ Broncos uniform number. She hears about many anonymous donations her son made around town: shoes for children, turkeys on Thanksgiving.
Parents here also ask her for advice on whether to let their children play football. Thinking back to that photo of her son after Super Bowl 50 and how he reached the top of his profession only to slip away, she warns them to be careful.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime dream come true,” she said. But “now I’m more adamant about like, hey, educate yourself on this.”