Chicago Bears defensive end Gaines Adams has died at the age of 26 following a cardiac arrest.
Enlarged heart caused fatal cardiac arrest, says local coroner
Chicago Bears defensive end Gaines Adams has died at the age of 26.
Greenwood County Coroner Jim Coursey told the NFL Network, the league's official television channel, Adams had gone into cardiac arrest because of an enlarged heart.
Adams was taken to Self Regional Hospital in Greenwood, South Carolina just after 8am local time and was pronounced dead in the emergency room around 20 minutes later.
He was selected fourth overall out of Clemson University by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2007 draft and was traded to the Bears last October.
"I remember him at the 2007 draft as a fine young man," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said.
"Our condolences to Gaines' family, his team-mates on the Bears and Buccaneers and their organisations on their loss."
