Former NFL cornerback Chris Payton-Jones died in a car accident Saturday night in Florida. He was 30.
Payton-Jones was driving a sedan eastbound in the westbound lanes of State Road 24 in Gainesville when his vehicle collided head-on with a pickup truck, according to News 4 Jacksonville. The three people in the truck sustained only minor injuries.
Payton-Jones’s car overturned and burst into flames. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Payton-Jones, a native of the Jacksonville area, was known as Chris Jones when he played college football at Nebraska from 2014-17. Unselected in the 2018 NFL draft, he went on to appear in 29 regular-season games with the Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Tennessee Titans from 2018-21. He later moved on to the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL in 2023, and spent the past two seasons with the St Louis Battlehawks of the UFL.
“The kid never missed a workout, never missed practice, and never wanted to come off the field. Everyone loved him,” his high school football coach, Ada Geis, told News 4 Jacksonville. “He was always unbelievably positive. I’ve never heard that kid ever say anything negative about anyone or anything. … It was always a pleasure to be around him. You were always happy to see him.”
Payton-Jones retired in January and made his side business of content creation a full-time job. His video content, primarily sports-related, has more than 1m views on his YouTube site, Flashflix. He was also a keen mentor of young videographers looking to find their way into sports media.