Vermeil: Chiefs' Sampson 'better' after seizure

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Oct. 7, 2005) -- Kansas City offensive lineman Kevin Sampson was improving a day after being hospitalized in New Jersey following a seizure, Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil said. - NFL Football -

"He's better; he's coherent," Vermeil said. "They're not allowing him to speak to anybody. We have no other information, but that seems to be good news."

The coach did not disclose the source of his information about Sampson, but said he was told he was in intensive care. - NFL Football -

Vermeil said he had not been able to talk to the player's family.

"His mother's going there right now," he said.

Vermeil said he did not know where Sampson, in his second year with the Chiefs, was hospitalized. Early reports were that he had been taken to St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken, N.J. However, a spokeswoman said Sampson was not at that hospital. - NFL Football -

The Jersey Journal in Jersey City reported that Sampson called 911 about 10 a.m. on Oct. 6 complaining of not feeling well. An ambulance came to a Hoboken apartment and Sampson, 24, asked to be taken to a hospital, but collapsed.

The Journal reported that Sampson was taken to the emergency room of a local hospital and was passing in and out of consciousness. - NFL Football -

"I'm shocked, I'm praying, and I'm frantically trying to get hold of someone," Joe Linta, Sampson's agent, said Oct. 6. He said he had tried to get information from the hospital but was denied.

Sampson, a 6-foot-4, 312-pound right tackle, started his first game with the Chiefs on Oct. 2 against the Philadelphia Eagles. He played college football at Syracuse, and Linta had been planning to meet him tonight at the Syracuse-Connecticut football game. - NFL Football -

Sampson's collapse was not the result of drugs or steroids, Chiefs director of player development Lamonte Winston said.

Vermeil had given Chiefs players the week off going into their bye weekend after their 37-31 loss to the Eagles on Oct. 2. - NFL Football -

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