Falcons rookie Anterio Thompson told he’ll never play football again
FLOWERY BRANCH — The NFL career of Falcons rookie defensive tackle Anterio Thompson, a sixth-round pick who’s been on the physically unable to perform/non-football injury list since the start of training camp, has ended before it ever began in earnest.
Thompson announced Thursday on social media he was informed May 8 — the first day of the Falcons’ rookie minicamp — that he’d “never play football again” because of a genetic mutation in his spinal cord. He added he had “no idea” about the issue beforehand.
“It’s hard to explain what it feels like to go through the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in the matter of seconds,” Thompson said in an Instagram story post. “I believe everything happens for a reason and this was nothing but God protecting and giving me a reason to be closer to Him.”
Thompson, who turned 24 years old Thursday, wasn’t spotted with the team at any point during open-to-media practice periods from OTAs onward, and he hasn’t been seen around the Falcons’ facility this season.
Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said twice this summer — once during mandatory minicamp in June, and again during training camp in August — that Thompson was “working through” an injury issue. Asked again Friday, Stefanski said he had “no update” on Thompson’s status.
The Falcons were fond of Thompson’s strengths. General manager Ian Cunningham rattled off a lengthy list of traits the 6-foot-4, 310-pounder showed in college: sawed off, powerful, explosive, hand strength, instincts. “He plays the brand of ball that our defensive staff looks for,” Cunningham said after the draft.
Thompson never had the chance to show it.
“Mentally, I’ve been better than anyone would be in my situation,” Thompson said in the post. “As a football player, you know one day you’ll have to hang up your cleats. But you just hope it’s on your own terms.”
Thompson’s improbable road to becoming an NFL draft pick makes the sudden, uncontrollable end to his career particularly cruel. He nearly gave up on football in high school. He attended four schools — Iowa Western Community College, Iowa, Western Michigan and Washington — across five years. He didn’t get an NFL combine invite.
After the Falcons selected him No. 208 overall this spring, Thompson said he was “speechless” and “had no words.” Less than two weeks later, he learned he’d never play again.
In a follow-up social media post early Saturday morning, Thompson said his initial message “wasn’t a cry for help or me asking for sympathy.”
“I just wanted to lay that part of me to rest,” Thompson said. “Football was everything to me. I just knew regardless how bad the world was around me, I had football.”