{"id":229652,"date":"2026-04-13T12:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T12:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229652\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T12:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T12:02:11","slug":"former-nfl-player-chris-payton-jones-killed-in-florida-car-crash-at-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229652\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL player Chris Payton-Jones killed in Florida car crash at 30"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/nfl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NFL<\/a> defensive back Chris Payton-Jones was killed in a car crash in Florida on Saturday night, officials said. He was 30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Payton-Jones was traveling in a vehicle when he struck a pickup truck and overturned, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Payton-Jones\u2019 vehicle caught fire and he was pronounced dead at the scene, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/fox2now.com\/sports\/former-battlehawks-player-dies-in-florida-car-crash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">FOX 2 Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chris-payton-jones-battlehawks-fox-news-001.jpeg\" alt=\"Chris Payton-Jones posing in St. Louis Battlehawks uniform in Arlington Texas\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Chris Payton-Jones of the St. Louis Battlehawks poses for a portrait in Arlington, Texas, on March 7, 2024. (Fox Sports\/UFL\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>He played for four NFL teams between 2018 and 2021 before he played for the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL. He then joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/ufl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">St. Louis BattleHawks<\/a> of the United Football League (UFL).<\/p>\n<p>The UFL released a statement on his death.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The United Football League is in mourning after the tragic passing of former St. Louis Battlehawks Defensive Back Chris Payton-Jones. Chris was a beloved teammate and leader in the locker room, who demonstrated the importance of hard work, determination, and resilience throughout his career.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/rex-culpepper-former-syracuse-quarterback-dead-28-from-injuries-georgia-dirt-bike-crash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">REX CULPEPPER, FORMER SYRACUSE QUARTERBACK, DEAD AT 28 FROM INJURIES IN GEORGIA DIRT BIKE CRASH<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chris-jones-arizona-cardinals-fox-news-001.jpeg\" alt=\"Cornerback Chris Jones warming up on the field at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Cornerback Chris Jones of the Arizona Cardinals warms up before the NFL game against the Seattle Seahawks at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sept. 29, 2019. (Ralph Freso\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As importantly, Chris was always a bright soul who everyone throughout the league enjoyed spending time with off-the-field during his three-year tenure. From fan appearances and media engagements to his own content creation and openness to share the highs and lows of his personal journey, Chris carried himself with humility and integrity. Our condolences are with his family, friends, teammates, and all others who are impacted by this loss.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Payton-Jones was a standout collegiate player at Nebraska. He joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/nfl\/arizona-cardinals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a> in 2021 as an undrafted free agent. He then played for the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Tennessee Titans.<\/p>\n<p>He played in 29 NFL games and had 48 tackles and seven pass breakups.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chris-payton-jones-st-louis-battlehawks-fox-news-001.jpeg\" alt=\"St. Louis Battlehawks cornerback Chris Payton-Jones standing on the field waiting for play to resume\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>St. Louis Battlehawks cornerback Chris Payton-Jones waits for play to resume during a game against the Memphis Showboats at The Dome at America&#8217;s Center in St. Louis, Mo., on April 20, 2024. (Rick Ulreich\/Icon Sportswire)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He played 18 regular-season games for the BattleHawks, recording 56 tackles and two interceptions.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Fox News Digital\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FoxNewsSports_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"> <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FoxNewsSports_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">sports coverage on X<\/a> and subscribe to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Former NFL defensive back Chris Payton-Jones was killed in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4404,8731,28,30,29,12216,119,50489,10836,50491],"class_list":{"0":"post-229652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-arizona-cardinals","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-minnesota-vikings","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-st-louis-battlehawks","16":"tag-tennessee-titans","17":"tag-ufl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}