The cheerleaders for reigning Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs will have a noticeable addition to their uniforms this season. They will be wearing cuffs with the initials “KA” emblazoned on them in rhinestones. The cuffs are an homage to former Chiefs cheerleader Krystal Anderson, who died in March due to complications from childbirth.
Anderson, who was on the squad from 2006 to 2011 and 2013 to 2016, was just 40 years old, according to the Chiefs . The organization also added Anderson’s initials to the sideline padding near the 10-yard line on the field where Anderson worked for the past seven years as a member of the squad’s alumni crew. "She left a mark on the world that we'll never forget," reads an announcing the squad's plans to honor her memory.
“She was such a light in life and in relationships, and the girl loved her sparkle," Stephanie Judah, the Chiefs' director of entertainment teams, said in a . "There could never be too many rhinestones, beads or sequins. If she could wear the most sparkly dress ever, she would.
You could never outdo her sparkle.” A new added this week showed Anderson's niece, a junior Chiefs cheerleader, wearing an embellished armband of her own while posing next to the sideline padding paying tribute to her late aunt. Anderson died from cardiac arrest caused by , a life-threatening medical emergency that happens when the immune system has an extreme response to an infection, after she gave birth to a stillborn child.
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