Dave Hannigan: Suicide of a young star the latest instalment in NFL’s increasingly bleak narrative

While Patrick O’Donovan, Minister for Sport and celebrated League of Ireland aficionado, was crowing last week about the money generated by the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings at Croke Park, the NFL community itself was reeling.

Just 48 hours had passed since one of the Vikings’ players was found dead in an empty garage in his hometown of New Albany, Indiana, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Wide receiver Rondale Moore became the second gridiron star in his 20s to die by suicide in just three months.

Moore didn’t feature in the Dublin encounter back in September because he missed the 2025 season due to knee surgery, recurring injuries having blighted his professional career after he initially made his reputation in college with the Purdue Boilermakers.

His passing comes weeks after a Harvard study concluded that NFL players are three times more likely to die by their own hand than athletes from America’s other major sports. Following on so soon from the Dallas Cowboys’ Marshawn Kneeland taking his own life after a police chase back in November, the circumstances and nature of this death prompted plenty of social media tributes from peers, but outrage too.

“These NFL teams come out here and post these mental health awareness posts talking about they care about players ‘don’t be afraid to reach out’ etc,” wrote Breiden Fehoko, formerly a nose tackle with the Steelers.

“All they care about is what you bring to the table when it’s game day. Most players don’t wanna get help inside the building of an NFL organisation because they know you’ll get looked at differently. You go to a staff member, tell ‘em you struggling, watch how different they start treating and looking at you. I seen it first hand ... I’ll start believing they care about player health when the Owner, GM, & head coach treat everyone on that roster the same from the franchise QB to the janitor ...”

At 5ft 7in, Moore was a versatile, fast and preternaturally strong pocket rocket. A video of him once went viral showing him managing to squat-lift 600lbs (272kg), more than three times his own body weight. Selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the second round of the 2021 draft, he signed a four-year rookie contract worth almost $7 million.

After a couple of injury-truncated campaigns, he featured in all 17 games in the 2023 season, a run of appearances that seemed to suggest he had finally arrived as a NFL threat. Except that his two receptions and 24 rushing yards for the Cardinals in a loss against the Seattle Seahawks on January 7th, 2024, turned out to be his last performance in the league.

Traded to the Atlanta Falcons soon after, he dislocated his right knee in a practice game against the Miami Dolphins during training camp. That sat him down for a year. Then last summer, freshly arrived at the Vikings, he tore the ACL in his left knee while returning a punt in the opening preseason fixture against the Houston Texans. Another campaign was over before it had begun.

Even while battling back from two potential career-enders, Moore regularly turned up at youth football camps and food drives in his native New Albany, lending his celebrity and trademark effervescent smile. One of the first things he had done after turning professional was to buy his mother Quincy her dream house in the town nestling on the banks of the Ohio river.

“For everything you sacrificed for me and my siblings,” he wrote on X, alongside a photo of him and her outside the new home, “this is only the beginning. Mama, this one is for you.”

Moore was 25 years old. For the last two of those years, he was battling just to get back on the field to keep earning the kind of money that allowed him to repay his mama so generously.

A basketball and football star in high school, excelling at sport had been his identity for most of his life. Losing that purpose and struggling to regain it over successive seasons would take a toll on anybody’s mental health. Especially in a sport with a dysfunctional culture that prizes “manning up” when injured, encourages playing through the pain barrier, and demands that already-damaged bodies be put on the line come Sunday.

Gridiron is where the long-term and short-term health of individuals is too often sacrificed for the immediate needs of the team. Damn the welfare consequences. Every player in every locker room knows well that with no guaranteed contracts, they are all vulnerable to getting cut the moment their form drops or someone better becomes available. Imagine how that must play on the minds of those trying to recover from serious operations so they can earn the big bucks a while longer, in a league where the average career lasts just over three seasons.

“I’m not jumping to conclusions, but let me say this,” posted Jamal Adams, the Las Vegas Raiders safety. “Fans and media be quick to label a player ‘injury prone’. We don’t choose to get hurt ... sometimes s**t just happens. Y’all don’t see the rehab, the pain, the mental drain it causes. That process can make you lose yourself. This s**t is real. No matter how much support you get, you still gotta fight that battle alone. Prayers up for Rondale Moore and his family. He was a baller, no question.”

No question. So many questions.

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