{"id":740257,"date":"2026-07-03T05:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740257\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T05:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:07:12","slug":"ex-nfl-player-keith-mitchell-dead-at-51","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740257\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NFL Player Keith Mitchell Dead At 51"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260702_b8e817854b6c4729876cf0656a13b3d7\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:c23fc961-61da-42b9-8804-b6da1a57b7f1\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/b8e817854b6c4729876cf0656a13b3d7_md.jpg\" alt=\"keith mitchell nfl getty 1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Former NFL linebacker Keith Mitchell has died, it was announced Thursday. He was just 51 years old.<\/p>\n<p>Details surrounding his death have not been disclosed.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260702_e437cda320b840ccaa92a4bddc4b7870\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:c23fc961-61da-42b9-8804-b6da1a57b7f1\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e437cda320b840ccaa92a4bddc4b7870_md.jpg\" alt=\"keith mitchell nfl getty 3\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mitchell was a star linebacker at Texas A&amp;M &#8230; and was named an All-American in 1996. His total sack count during his time at College Station put him toward the top all-time in organization history.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>After going undrafted due to size concerns in 1997, he joined the New Orleans Saints &#8230; where he played until 2001.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of his success on the gridiron, Mitchell earned a Pro Bowl selection in 2000.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260702_8941e80016784a63af9e5a0840543e91\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:c23fc961-61da-42b9-8804-b6da1a57b7f1\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8941e80016784a63af9e5a0840543e91_md.jpg\" alt=\"keith mitchell nfl getty 2\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>In total, Mitchell had 286 solo tackles, 19.5 sacks, and four interceptions for the Saints, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars.<\/p>\n<p>He suffered a spinal injury during a game in 2003 &#8230; and it not only ended his time in the NFL, but it also jeopardized his mobility &#8212; but he ultimately overcame the ailment.<\/p>\n<p>Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.<\/p>\n<p>Following his playing career, Mitchell shifted to wellness and yoga &#8230; and released a book called &#8220;The Mindfulness Mastery Playbook&#8221; late last year.<\/p>\n<p>He credited yoga and meditation with saving his life &#8230; and traveled the world sharing his expertise.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kbtx.com\/2026\/07\/02\/texas-am-wrecking-crew-linebacker-keith-mitchell-dead-51\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">KBTX<\/a> was first to report the news of Mitchell&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NFL linebacker Keith Mitchell has died, it was announced Thursday. He was just 51 years old. Details&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[3,349,99,2415,2525],"class_list":["post-740257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tmz-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}