Allen Bailey, the defensive end who spent eight seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, has died at 37, TMZ Sports reported Wednesday.
Bailey’s brother, Alford Bailey Jr., told TMZ that Bailey’s wife found him dead on Tuesday inside the couple’s home in Florida. The family believes he died of natural causes, according to the outlet. TMZ’s report did not cite a medical examiner or any other official finding.
Kansas City selected Bailey in the third round of the 2011 NFL Draft out of the University of Miami.
He played his first eight seasons with the Chiefs before joining the Atlanta Falcons in 2019, appearing in 31 games over two seasons in Atlanta before the team released him in 2021.
Across 133 regular-season NFL games, he recorded 22 sacks and 248 combined tackles, TMZ reported.
His breakout came in Kansas City. In November 2014, the Associated Press reported that Bailey and the Chiefs had agreed to a four-year, $25 million contract extension after he started all nine games that season and set a career high with four sacks. “He has developed into a good football player and a key member of our defense,” then-general manager John Dorsey said at the time.
Defensive coordinator Bob Sutton told the AP that Bailey was “a very gifted guy athletically” who “could play 80 plays every week and never get tired.”
Bailey’s road to the league was an unusual one. He was born on March 25, 1989, on Sapelo Island, Georgia, and attended McIntosh County Academy before heading to Miami, according to TMZ.
Roundtable Sports, which covers the Hurricanes, reported that Bailey did not play football until high school but still drew heavy recruiting interest, with college coaches either flying directly to the island or taking a ferry to see him. He chose Miami over several top programs.
At Miami from 2007 to 2010, Bailey recorded 103 tackles, 31 of them for a loss, along with 12 sacks in 50 games, Roundtable Sports reported.
The outlet described him as one of the most intimidating players in school history, despite what it called a teddy-bear attitude.
Roundtable Sports also noted that reports of Bailey’s death first circulated Tuesday night and were initially doubted by many as a hoax. Most major outlets confirmed the news on Wednesday morning.
