We have seen a rash of shocking deaths among young athletes over the last decade.
Quite a few of them are having cardiac events, which simply makes no sense when you consider these are world-class athletes.
Then there is the other killer… suicide. And that is what is now being reported as the cause of death of a young NFL wide receiver, Rondale Moore.
Moore was a stud wide receiver for Purdue during his first season with the team in 2018.
He won numerous honors, including Big Ten Receiver of the Year, after recording 1,164 yards, which was complemented by his 203 rushing yards. In his sophomore campaign, he wound up suffering a hamstring injury that cut his season short.
Then, in 2020, he had initially opted out due to COVID, but he wound up playing. However, he suffered another setback and spent most of the season injured. Even so, the Arizona Cardinals took an early shot at him and drafted him in the second round.
His debut season with the Cardinals showed enormous promise, but once again, during his second season, he suffered a hamstring injury, finishing with only 414 receiving yards. He had a mediocre 2023 campaign, was traded to the Atlanta Falcons, and suffered another injury. After signing with the Vikings in 2025, he suffered a knee injury to end his season before it really started.
On Saturday, it was reported that Moore was found inside his home in Indiana with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Local authorities are investigating his death, but the early reports confirm this as a suicide.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell stated, "I am devastated by the news of Rondale’s death. While Rondale had been a member of the Vikings for a short time, he was someone we came to know well and care about deeply. He was a humble, soft-spoken, and respectful young man who was proud of his Indiana roots.”
This, sadly, is a trend we are seeing far too often among athletes, and we are trying to figure out what is going on. The Dallas Cowboys also had a suicide last year when, after what was considered a career game, Marshawn Kneeland took his own life.
In January 2026, a study was revealed that showed a rising rate of suicides among NFL players.
The study was conducted by Rachel Grashow, senior research scientist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of epidemiological research initiatives for the FPHS, and Marc Weisskopf, Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Physiology and director of epidemiological studies for the FPHS.
In part, the study found, “When we split the data at 2011, we found that prior to 2011, NFL, MLB, and NBA players also had the same rate of death by suicide. From 2011 to 2019, however, we saw an almost threefold increase in suicide among NFL players when compared to these other professional athletes.”
That is rather disturbing, to say the least, and it is surely something that must be investigated to find out why this is happening. Researchers know the problem, but the cause, to this point, has eluded them.
