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By RODNEY PAGE, Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 7, 2001
Player dies after an indoor football game
United States Inside Football League player Curtis Jones, 35, died Sunday night after a game in Las Vegas.
Jones, 6-foot-6 276 pounds, anchored the defensive line and played fullback for the Utah Lyonzz in the second-tier indoor league.
"We're all in shock, as you can imagine," team owner Michael Curran said, fighting back tears. "We're emotionally ravaged. It's a nightmare. We want to wake up.
"After the game, he just collapsed into the arms of some of the other players. The doctor who treated him thinks his left ventricle collapsed. They shocked him. He didn't recover."
Jones was taken by ambulance to a Las Vegas hospital. Leslie Luke, hospital chief executive officer, said Jones' heart stopped by the time he arrived at 7:54 p.m.
He was pronounced dead 10 minutes later.
Jones played tight end at the University of Utah and was an assistant coach at Granger High School in Salt Lake City.
Lester Johnson, with the opposing Northwest Fire, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that doctors told players Jones died of a heart attack or aneurism.
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