By Gina Gomez
Oct. 29, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Former Minnesota Vikings player Orlando Thomas is still alive and has not died, as was reported earlier. The defensive back who played for the National Football League for almost six years, has been fighting the Lou Gehrigs Disease. It was announced by The Vikings on their website that the player had died. However, it was clarified later that Thomas was very much alive and he was still continuing his battle against the disease.

Mark Bartelstein, the player’s agent who is based in Chicago brushed away reports of his death and confirmed that the 37 year old Thomas was alive, after he had a conversation with Thomas’s daughter. On Wednesday night, when news of his death were doing rounds in various quarters, Thomas was supposedly watching basketball in his home along with his family.

In the month of June 2007, Thomas revealed that he was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is a neuro-degenerative ailment that leads to the inactivity of the motor neurons and ultimately results in the lose of any voluntary activity. Meanwhile, Thomas who was one of the most cherished player of the professional football team of Minnesota Vikings, started showing symptoms of the ailment in the year 2004. The disease is also popularly known as the Lou Gehrigs Disease, after the celebrated New York Yankees baseball player Lou Gehrigs was diagnosed with the ailment and later passed away in 1941.

The Vikings expressed their apologies for communicating the false information late on Wednesday night in their online portal. They also added an explanation, where it was mentioned that the news of Thomas’s death was reported by someone in the university.