Ex-Giants offensive lineman dies of heat stroke

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Officials say former New York Giants offensive lineman Mitch Petrus has died in Arkansas of apparent heat stroke.

He was 32.

This is a 2010 photo of Mitch Petrus of the New York Giants NFL football team. (AP Photo)

Pulaski County Coroner Gerone Hobbs says Petrus died Thursday night at a North Little Rock hospital. He says Petrus had worked outside all day at his family shop, and that his cause of death is listed as heat stroke.

Petrus was a University of Arkansas walk-on who played alongside Razorback greats Darren McFadden and Felix Jones and later earned all-Southeastern Conference honors.

He was drafted by the Giants in the fifth round in 2010 and had a three-year NFL career, winning a Super Bowl with New York in his second season and playing briefly for the New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans the following year.

Like much of the U.S., Arkansas is in the grips of an intense heat wave.