Last Friday was a day of giving at the Chiefs new training complex.

This was just the type of day that Derrick Thomas would have loved.

It began with an event sponsored by the Chiefs Wives Organization (CWO). Created two years ago by Lia Edwards, the CWO is comprised of wives, fiancées and significant others of Chiefs players, coaches and football support staff. The organization actively participates with numerous charities and causes in the Kansas City community.

The CWO welcomed about a dozen students from the Derrick Thomas Academy to the team’s new offices. The DTA is a charter school in Kansas City, Missouri that primarily serves at risk, inner-city African-American students who face challenges at home or who struggle in the typical public school environment. They are students in dire need of a strong, quality education.

Youngsters from DTA had an essay contest with the subject being Derrick Thomas and the best examples were selected and honored by spending a day with the Chiefs. The kids got the chance to see a video on the life of D.T. They watched practice and got autographs from players and coaches. Carl Peterson spoke to the group about Derrick and the importance of education, as did the team’s executive director of player development Lamonte Winston. They saw some of the trophies D.T. won during his career, including his NFL Man of the Year Award and the college diploma from the University of Alabama that Derrick earned before his tragic death in February 2000.

The group heard from another speaker as well. He stood in the team’s Hank Stram Theater, wearing his high school football jersey and looking every bit like his father’s son. Derrion Thomas is a senior at Blue Springs South High School and he told the kids from DTA about his father, sharing some stories about No. 58. It was one of the first times that young D.T. has talked about his Dad outside his family and friends.

That alone was an emotional moment for many around the Chiefs who knew Derrick Thomas. His son has the same body, although a few pounds lighter right now. He has many of the same facial features, including a sparkle in his eye that was undeniably passed on by his father. After Gunther Cunningham stopped and said hello, the Chiefs defensive coordinator walked away wiping a tear from his eye. It was a very real reminder of the man who has been missing for eight years now.

While the kids were getting autographs at the end of practice, Mike Davidson and Allen Wright from the Chiefs equipment department were busy. They pulled out of storage a trunk that contained all of the equipment Derrick Thomas wore when he played his final game on January 2, 2000. They brought Derrion into the equipment room and had him try on his father’s shoulder pads.

They fit perfectly.

That’s when they presented the shoulder pads to Derrion and told him he could wear them that night in a game against Rockhurst High School in the Missouri state football playoffs.

By the end of Blue Springs South’s 14-9 upset victory, Derrion Thomas had

four sacks and a half-dozen other tackles. “I felt like my Dad was with me all night,” Derrion told the Blue Springs Examiner newspaper after the game. “I felt like he was with me the minute I put them on. It just felt different going into this game. I can’t explain it. It was just different.”

This is the first year that Derrion has concentrated on football; he’s been a competitive swimmer for years and won a state championship in the pool for Blue Springs South last year. His future in the game appears to be limitless and he plans to make a trip to his father’s alma mater the University of Alabama to see about playing football in college.

It was a fitting end for this Friday of giving. The CWO gave the kids from Derrick Thomas Academy a chance to learn more about the man whose name is on the school. The Chiefs gave Derrion Thomas a piece of his father. The son went out and gave a performance worthy of his old man.

And somewhere Derrick Thomas had the biggest smile on his face.