Former NFL Player Simmons Dies in Crash

Former NFL linebacker Wayne Simmons, a starter on the Green Bay Packers’ 1997 Super Bowl championship team, was killed early Friday when his car crashed and burst into flames.

Simmons, 32, was driving too fast and weaving through traffic on an interstate in suburban Kansas City when his Mercedes veered off the freeway about 2:45 a.m., witnesses told police.

The car rolled several times and landed in a ditch, then the engine caught fire. Other motorists tried to get Simmons out, but they couldn’t unfasten his seat belt.

Firefighters put out the fire and pulled Simmons from the car. An autopsy was planned.

Coincidentally, Simmons was a friend of Derrick Thomas, a Kansas City teammate who died of injuries related to a car accident in February 2000.

Simmons was traded by Green Bay to Kansas City during the 1997 season. He was cut after the Chiefs lost to Denver, 30-7, on Nov. 17, 1998.

With a Monday night television audience watching, the Chiefs committed five personal-foul penalties on Denver’s last touchdown drive: three by Thomas, one by Chester McGlockton and the other by Simmons.

Simmons was picked up by Buffalo and finished the season with the Bills. He didn’t play again in the NFL.