Retired NFL wide receiver Mike Williams has died after suffering what his family described as “massive” head injury at a construction site last week. He was 36.
Williams’ father Wendell Muhammad provided details about the tragic accident in a GoFundMe post earlier this week. Spectrum News 1 in Buffalo reported Williams had died on Tuesday night.
Muhammad said Williams, who played for his hometown Buffalo Bills and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, “recently had a major accident at work” in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area when “a steel beam fell on his head causing a massive head injury.”
“As a result of this accident, there was swelling on his brain and swelling on his spinal cord that was ruptured,” his father said. “These injuries resulted in complete paralysis in his right arm as well as his lower body from the waist down.”
“As you can probably imagine, this is painful for me and has me distraught,” Muhammad wrote after providing details about the accident that killed his son.
Williams was born in Buffalo, New York and found success as a high school football player at Riverside Institute of Technology. He went on to play at nearby Syracuse before he was drafted to the NFL in 2010 by the Buccaneers.
The wide receiver played five full seasons in the NFL before retiring in 2016 with the Kansas City Chiefs. He racked up 26 touchdowns and 3,089 receiving yards throughout his career.
“Dang man hurts my heart seeing the news of my former teammate and Buccaneers 2010 draft class brother Mike Williams,” his former Tampa Bay teammate Gerald McCoy tweeted late Tuesday night.
“Always great energy brought joy and laughter to the locker room and a heck of a player!! Prayers and blessings to his family!!”
Use his NFL money. Quit being greedy and asking everyone else to foot your bills for you. I’m so tired of people taking advantage of others through gofundme.
Played professional football and ended up as a construction worker?