Former NFL cornerback Chris Payton-Jones has died in a car accident in Florida. He was 30. The crash occurred on Saturday night on State Road 24 in Gainesville.
Payton-Jones was driving a car eastbound in the westbound lanes when his vehicle collided head-on with a pickup truck, according to local reports. The three people in the truck suffered only minor injuries. His car overturned and caught fire, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Payton-Jones, originally from the Jacksonville area, played college football at Nebraska from 2014 to 2017 under the name Chris Jones. He went undrafted in 2018 but went on to appear in 29 regular-season games for the Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Tennessee Titans between 2018 and 2021. He later played for the Seattle Sea Dragons in the XFL in 2023 and spent the past two seasons with the St Louis Battlehawks of the UFL.
His former high school coach, Ada Geis, paid tribute, saying: “The kid never missed a workout, never missed practice, and never wanted to come off the field. Everyone loved him. He was always unbelievably positive. I’ve never heard that kid ever say anything negative about anyone or anything.”
Payton-Jones retired from football in January and made his side business of content creation a full-time job. His sports-related video channel, Flashflix, has more than one million views on YouTube. He also mentored young videographers hoping to enter sports media.
