Why Chiefs running back Darwin Thompson got emotional after Sunday’s loss to Chargers
Darwin Thompson wanted to turn pro after his second season at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, a junior college football program he attended mostly because he did not have a single Division I scholarship offer.
Let’s repeat that: A running back for the Kansas City Chiefs did not have any Division I programs offer him a spot on their roster.
Anyway, his position coach, Gerald Howse, talked him out of turning pro. He thought Thompson had more to learn, more ways to improve before embarking on an NFL dream. They had that type of relationship, Thompson says in reflection — Howse could be honest with him, even if it wasn’t what he necessarily wanted to hear. And in that moment of reflection, Thompson will tell you he needed that voice. Might not be here without it.
Thompson lost that voice this summer — Howse died in May at just 28 years old.
But Thompson hasn’t lost the impression Howse made on him. Especially in a season that has tested him.
Crediting that, Thompson pushed a bright spot into his second pro season, producing a career day in the Chiefs’ 38-21 loss Sunday to the Chargers. Offered a chance to be the featured back, he totaled 110 yards and a pair of touchdowns, the standout on a day in which the Chiefs elected to play their backups.
After the game, Thompson, unprompted, couldn’t help but mention a man who helped get him here.
Howse.
“Man, I wish he was here to watch,” Thompson said, bowing his head to hide his face as he became emotional. “I don’t know. I just... I had to keep going.”
That’s sort of been the theme of his season. It’s been difficult, he would admit. He went two months without touching the football, a byproduct of the Chiefs adding Le’Veon Bell to the mix mid-season.
But he has remembered messages repeated to him. He reiterated them in a postgame Zoom call with media, as though he was speaking directly to others like him — JUCO players — and reminding them to believe in themselves.
Howse used to tell him that often.
“He pushed me in a lot of different ways — as a man, as a follower of Christ — to just be a better young man,” Thompson said. “A lot of kids that go JUCO are either misguided or they didn’t have the grades or they just needed that second chance. I was a leader at my junior college, and he helped push me to be that.”
Thompson wrote goals on a whiteboard in his home. He reads them to himself every day, he says. Finish 2020 strong, one reads.
In 2021, reads another, dominate.
Off to a good start with that. With the Chiefs resting their top running backs, Thompson absorbed the starting role. He exploded on a 37-yard screen pass on the first drive. He ran hard throughout, even with his 5-foot-8 frame, between the tackles.
He rushed 14 times for 45 yards and one touchdown. He caught seven passes for 65 yards and another score. All were career highs.
After not having a touch since Week 8.
“I love to ball. I’m not going to lie to people and say that I love everything about the game of football. I love to ball. I love to run the ball. I love to ball. I love to have a good game,” Thompson said. “I’m going to work because I have to work because I know I need to work because I know I’m chasing greatness. Coming into today’s game (the message) was to go out there and ball. The rest of the stuff is going to take care of itself.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2021 at 9:49 PM with the headline "Why Chiefs running back Darwin Thompson got emotional after Sunday’s loss to Chargers."