{"id":51473,"date":"2025-05-27T03:11:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T03:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473"},"modified":"2025-05-27T03:11:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T03:11:23","slug":"remembering-chiefs-legend-derrick-thomas-memorial-day-speech-from-1993-whose-father-made-the-ultimate-sacrifice-during-military-service-%f0%9f%94%97%e2%a4%b5%ef%b8%8f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas’ Memorial Day speech from 1993, whose father made the ultimate sacrifice during military service \ud83d\udd17\u2935\ufe0f"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Derrick<\/p>\n

Besides football, legendary\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0linebacker Derrick Thomas also had a huge passion for the military.<\/p>\n

Robert Thomas, Derrick’s father, was\u00a0killed when his B-52G heavy bomber was shot down in combat during the Vietnam War back in 1972. Derrick didn’t learn the cause of his father’s death until he was a freshman at the University of Alabama.<\/p>\n

Derrick was in the prime of his career in 1993, already a two-time All-Pro and NFL sack leader. That Memorial Day Weekend, he gave a speech alongside the 42nd United States President Bill Clinton\u00a0at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington\u00a0D.C. (H\/T L.A. Times Archives<\/a>).<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s very ironic that my father\u2019s last mission was named Linebacker II,” Thomas said. “It\u2019s very ironic that in college I had 52 sacks and my father flew a B-52.\u00a0I was bitter for a long time.\u00a0I\u2019ve spent the better part of my life trying to find out what kind of man my father actually was.\u00a0I\u2019ve tried to research all I could. I talked to members of his unit. Memorial Day serves as a time to remember. It\u2019s an opportunity to talk to other people who have similar stories to mine.\u00a0I didn\u2019t have a male figure in my life, to come and watch me play in a football game. I didn\u2019t have that male figure in my life when things were going bad.\u00a0I was blessed with the ability to perform at a high level in athletics, but I wasn\u2019t blessed to be a great person. For me, this is probably the crowning moment, to stand with people that fought with my father.”<\/p>\n

Like his father, Derrick also tragically passed away at a young age. Derrick died a few weeks after being involved in a car accident on January 23, 2000. He was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame later that year, and into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.\u00a0In 2022 the Chiefs wore a patch to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Operation Linebacker I & II to honor Derrick and Robert Thomas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Besides football, legendary\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0linebacker Derrick Thomas also had a huge passion for the military. Robert Thomas, Derrick’s father, was\u00a0killed when his B-52G heavy bomber was shot… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\nRemembering Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas' Memorial Day speech from 1993, whose father made the ultimate sacrifice during military service \ud83d\udd17\u2935\ufe0f - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Remembering Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas' Memorial Day speech from 1993, whose father made the ultimate sacrifice during military service \ud83d\udd17\u2935\ufe0f - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Besides football, legendary\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0linebacker Derrick Thomas also had a huge passion for the military. Robert Thomas, Derrick’s father, was\u00a0killed when his B-52G heavy bomber was shot...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-27T03:11:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-162-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2011\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473\",\"name\":\"Remembering Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas' Memorial Day speech from 1993, whose father made the ultimate sacrifice during military service \ud83d\udd17\u2935\ufe0f - 24\/7 News America\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-162-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-27T03:11:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-27T03:11:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-162-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-162-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2011,\"height\":2560},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Remembering Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas’ Memorial Day speech from 1993, whose father made the ultimate sacrifice during military service \ud83d\udd17\u2935\ufe0f\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"24\/7 News America\",\"description\":\"Breaking Stories, Real Insights"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914\",\"name\":\"Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Remembering Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas' Memorial Day speech from 1993, whose father made the ultimate sacrifice during military service \ud83d\udd17\u2935\ufe0f - 24\/7 News America","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Remembering Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas' Memorial Day speech from 1993, whose father made the ultimate sacrifice during military service \ud83d\udd17\u2935\ufe0f - 24\/7 News America","og_description":"Besides football, legendary\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0linebacker Derrick Thomas also had a huge passion for the military. Robert Thomas, Derrick’s father, was\u00a0killed when his B-52G heavy bomber was shot...","og_url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473","og_site_name":"24\/7 News America","article_published_time":"2025-05-27T03:11:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2011,"height":2560,"url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-162-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473","url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473","name":"Remembering Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas' Memorial Day speech from 1993, whose father made the ultimate sacrifice during military service \ud83d\udd17\u2935\ufe0f - 24\/7 News America","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-162-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2025-05-27T03:11:23+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-27T03:11:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-162-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-162-scaled.jpg","width":2011,"height":2560},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=51473#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Remembering Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas’ Memorial Day speech from 1993, whose father made the ultimate sacrifice during military service \ud83d\udd17\u2935\ufe0f"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/","name":"24\/7 News America","description":"Breaking Stories, Real Insights"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914","name":"Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Admin"},"url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51475,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51473\/revisions\/51475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}