{"id":603880,"date":"2026-04-13T10:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/603880\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T10:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:15:09","slug":"former-nfl-player-chris-payton-jones-30-dead-in-a-florida-car-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/603880\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL player Chris Payton-Jones, 30, dead in a Florida car crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NFL player Chris Payton-Jones died in a Florida car accident on Saturday night. He was 30.<\/p>\n

Payton-Jones, who was driving a sedan, collided head-on with a pickup truck in Alachua County, according to News 4 Jacksonville<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was the only person killed in the crash. The truck\u2019s three passengers suffered only minor injuries. His family confirmed his death.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Payton-Jones #9 of the St. Louis Battlehawks poses for a portrait on March 07, 2024. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Payton-Jones signed with the Lions, Titans, Vikings and Raiders, playing in 29 games over six seasons in the league. He recorded 48 tackles and seven passes defended in the NFL.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot, 230-pound defensive back out of Nebraska most recently played for the Seattle Battlehawks of the UFL in 2024 after spending 2022 in the XFL with the SeaDragons.<\/p>\n

Former coaches of Payton-Jones have praised him as a role model, dedicated athlete and community pillar following his death.<\/p>\n

Sandalwood High School coach Adam Geis \u2014 who coached Payton-Jones as a three-star cornerback prospect in 2014 \u2014 remembered him as a genuine, dedicated player, driven by an elite work ethic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was one of my all-time favorites! The kid never missed a workout, never missed practice, and never wanted to come off the field. Everyone loved him,\u201d Geis said, according to News4Jax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always unbelievably positive. I\u2019ve never heard that kid ever say anything negative about anyone or anything. \u2026 It was always a pleasure to be around him. You were always happy to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FootballChris Payton-Jones #3 and Nick Whiteside #10 of St. Louis Battlehawks pose for a photo after a game against Arlington Renegades at The Dome at America\u00e2s Center on May 02, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Another of his high school coaches, Patrick Clark, described him as the \u201chardest working human being I\u2019ve ever been around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA great player but even better person. He was never the biggest or fastest, but he did things the right way, and the game paid him back for it,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, he was going to make his biggest impact off the field as he was transitioning to a career of service in media and development of young athletes. I credit Chris as a huge inspiration to my coaching career as I moved up in the ranks. He is everything you want in a student athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony Becht, who coached Payton-Jones during his time with the Battlehawks, said his \u201cheart was broken\u201d over the news of his former player\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris was an outstanding player, a fantastic teammate and an incredible human being. Chris was a joy to coach and be around the past two seasons in St. Louis,\u201d Becht said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that young man. Sending out deepest respect and condolences to the Payton-Jones Family from myself, my staff, and from all his teammates that loved and worked with him. The world lost a good one.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, Payton-Jones became well known in his local community for his Flashflix media company and YouTube channel, which has more than 1.3 million views. The channel was focused on local sports in Jacksonville.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just was an honest, genuine, true-to-himself type of person,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NFL player Chris Payton-Jones died in a Florida car accident on Saturday night. He was 30. Payton-Jones,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,41292,23167,593,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-603880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-car-crashes","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}