The NFL is still trying to process how fast everything changed for Rondale Moore. By Saturday night in New Albany, Ind., the 25-year-old Minnesota Vikings wide receiver was gone, found in a garage with what police say appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.Hours before that, Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown says his phone lit up with a message from his former Arizona Cardinals teammate. That single notification turned into the detail that makes this story even harder to shake, and it has pushed the league back into a conversation about what players carry in silence.
Hollywood Brown reveals final texts in the hours before Rondale Moore’s death
Brown went public with his shock on social media after news of Moore’s death broke. On X, he wrote, “Bro ain’t no way,” the Kansas City Chiefs player wrote on X Feb. 21, “brotha you just messaged me few hours ago.”In a follow-up post, he tried to speak directly to what Moore had been fighting through. “You wasn’t alone bro..” Brown wrote. “I told you I know how you feel.”Brown and Moore shared a locker room with the Cardinals in 2022 and 2023 and stayed close even after trades and injuries pushed their careers onto different tracks. After Moore tore his ACL for a second time during the Vikings’ first preseason game in 2025, Brown sent him a long message. He shared part of that thread again this week, including the line, “I’m here if you ever need to talk,” before reminding him he was built to handle setbacks and urging him not to give up.He later added another line over a screenshot of that conversation: “I love you bro. I always wanted to speak life into you.”Those posts turned a death notice into something more raw. It was not just that Moore was gone. It was that, according to Brown, he had reached out only a few hours before everything ended.
Injuries, pressure and a suspected self-inflicted gunshot that ended Rondale Moore’s career
Police in New Albany say Moore was found in a garage on Saturday, Feb. 21, and that the early indication points to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. An autopsy was scheduled as part of the ongoing investigation, and officials have not yet closed the case.Moore’s football story had looked like a straight climb when it started. He broke out at Purdue as a freshman All-American, then became a second-round pick by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2021 NFL Draft. He played three seasons in Arizona, flashed as a space player, and lined up alongside Brown in a spread offense built around speed.Then the injuries began to stack up. Moore was traded to the Atlanta Falcons in 2024 but missed that entire season with a knee injury. He signed a one-year deal with the Vikings in 2025 and tore his ACL in their first preseason game, which meant another full year on injured reserve and no regular-season snaps for Minnesota.Teams and former teammates have tried to put that grind into words since his death. The Cardinals called themselves “devastated” and sent condolences to everyone who knew him. The Vikings released a longer statement and head coach Kevin O’Connell said Moore was someone they had come to care about deeply, describing him as humble, disciplined, and proud of where he came from.J.J. Watt, who played with Moore in Arizona, wrote that there was “no way” to process the news and called him “way too special” to be gone already.
