Vikings head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell said he was \u201cdevastated\u201d by the news of Moore\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Rondale had been a member of the Vikings for a short time, he was someone we came to know well and care about deeply,\u201d O\u2019Connell said in a statement. \u201cHe was a humble, soft-spoken and respectful young man who was proud of his Indiana roots.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a player, he was disciplined, dedicated and resilient despite facing adversity multiple times as injuries sidelined him throughout his career. We are all heartbroken by the fact he won\u2019t continue to live out his NFL dream, and we won\u2019t all have a chance to watch him flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore\u2019s former coach at Purdue University, Jeff Brohm, had offered a tribute on X, formerly Twitter, calling Moore \u201ca complete joy to coach\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cRondale had a work ethic unmatched by anyone,\u201d Brohm said. \u201cA great teammate that would come through in any situation. We all loved Rondale, we loved his smile and competitive edge that always wanted to please everyone he came in contact with.\u201d<\/p>\n
After starring at Purdue, Moore was a second-round draft selection by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2021 NFL draft.<\/p>\n
He was traded to the Atlanta Falcons in March of 2024 and suffered a season-ending knee injury in training camp that year.<\/p>\n
He inked a one-year deal with the Minnesota Vikings last March but suffered a season-ending knee injury in their first pre-season game.<\/p>\n
Former teammates reacted to Moore\u2019s death on social media. J.J. Watt, who played with Moore in Arizona, posted on X: \u201cCan\u2019t even begin to fathom or process this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just no way. Way too soon. Way too special. So much left to give. Rest in Peace, Rondale,\u201d Watt wrote.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vikings head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell said he was \u201cdevastated\u201d by the news of Moore\u2019s death. \u201cWhile Rondale had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17311,163401,18919,29893,634,6179,7126,78,9222,12898,60,111,139,28181,69,163400,163398,3048,213,8238,163399,41217],"class_list":{"0":"post-296366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-17311","9":"tag-25yearolds","10":"tag-aged","11":"tag-authorities","12":"tag-death","13":"tag-died","14":"tag-dies","15":"tag-in","16":"tag-indiana","17":"tag-investigation","18":"tag-moore","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-receiver","24":"tag-rondale","25":"tag-said","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-under","28":"tag-vikings","29":"tag-wide"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}