KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Former Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Tavon Rooks had a heart attack on the practice field last month while in training camp with the team, he told Chiefs Digest.
"They officially called it a heart attack," Rooks told the website. "I was scared. You don't know what's going to happen. You've been so healthy before, you don't expect it to happen.
"If they didn't catch that in time, the doctor was telling me I would've been dead on the field or in my dorm room that night."
The Chiefs said they would have no comment on Rooks. He was waived Sept. 1, and is undergoing treatment in Arizona, according to Chiefs Digest.
Rooks left the training camp field at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph during the middle of practice Aug. 17. Coach Andy Reid said at the time that Rooks was experiencing shortness of breath.
Rooks confirmed that to Chiefs Digest, saying he first attempted to play through the discomfort because he was trying to make the team.
"Pain is not the first thing on your mind right now,'' he told the website.
Chiefs offensive lineman Marcus Reed signaled to the team's medical personnel that Rooks needed assistance.
"It was to the point where I couldn't focus on what I needed to do and accomplish on the field because there was discomfort in my chest,'' Rooks told Chiefs Digest.
Rooks was eventually taken to a hospital in St. Joseph, where his situation was stabilized.
He said he was told he suffered acute myocardial infarction as a result of a blood clot, as well as a prolonged irregular heartbeat.
"They officially called it a heart attack," Rooks told the website.
Rooks' agent, Richard Kopelman, thanked medical personnel and the Chiefs for likely saving the player's life.
"Odds are he would not have survived," Kopelman told Chiefs Digest. "It was really a very tenuous situation. We're just so happy the Chiefs did what they did with Tavon in terms of the level of care he received from them, and then they got him into a good hospital with great care."
