Rondale Moore’s final texts revealed before suspected self‑inflicted death

The NFL is inactive trying to process however accelerated everything changed for Rondale Moore. By Saturday nighttime successful New Albany, Ind., the 25-year-old Minnesota Vikings wide receiver was gone, recovered successful a store with what constabulary accidental appears to beryllium a self-inflicted gunshot wound.Hours earlier that, Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown says his telephone lit up with a connection from his erstwhile Arizona Cardinals teammate. That azygous notification turned into the item that makes this communicative adjacent harder to shake, and it has pushed the league backmost into a speech astir what players transportation successful silence.

Hollywood Brown reveals last texts successful the hours earlier Rondale Moore’s death

Brown went nationalist with his daze connected societal media aft quality of Moore’s decease broke.

On X, helium wrote, “Bro ain’t nary way,” the Kansas City Chiefs subordinate wrote connected X Feb. 21, “brotha you conscionable messaged maine fewer hours ago.”In a follow-up post, helium tried to talk straight to what Moore had been warring through. “You wasn’t unsocial bro..” Brown wrote. “I told you I cognize however you feel.”

Brown and Moore shared a locker country with the Cardinals successful 2022 and 2023 and stayed adjacent close aft trades and injuries pushed their careers onto antithetic tracks.

After Moore tore his ACL for a 2nd clip during the Vikings’ archetypal preseason crippled successful 2025, Brown sent him a agelong message. He shared portion of that thread again this week, including the line, “I’m present if you ever request to talk,” earlier reminding him helium was built to grip setbacks and urging him not to springiness up.He aboriginal added different enactment implicit a screenshot of that conversation: “I emotion you bro. I ever wanted to talk beingness into you.”Those posts turned a decease announcement into thing much raw. It was not conscionable that Moore was gone. It was that, according to Brown, helium had reached retired lone a fewer hours earlier everything ended.

Injuries, unit and a suspected self-inflicted gunshot that ended Rondale Moore’s career

Police successful New Albany accidental Moore was recovered successful a store connected Saturday, Feb. 21, and that the aboriginal denotation points to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. An autopsy was scheduled arsenic portion of the ongoing investigation, and officials person not yet closed the case.Moore’s shot communicative had looked similar a consecutive ascent erstwhile it started. He broke retired astatine Purdue arsenic a freshman All-American, past became a second-round prime by the Arizona Cardinals successful the 2021 NFL Draft. He played 3 seasons successful Arizona, flashed arsenic a abstraction player, and lined up alongside Brown successful a dispersed discourtesy built astir speed.Then the injuries began to stack up. Moore was traded to the Atlanta Falcons successful 2024 but missed that full play with a genu injury.

He signed a one-year woody with the Vikings successful 2025 and tore his ACL successful their archetypal preseason game, which meant different afloat twelvemonth connected injured reserve and nary regular-season snaps for Minnesota.Teams and erstwhile teammates person tried to enactment that grind into words since his death. The Cardinals called themselves “devastated” and sent condolences to everyone who knew him. The Vikings released a longer connection and caput manager Kevin O’Connell said Moore was idiosyncratic they had travel to attraction astir deeply, describing him arsenic humble, disciplined, and arrogant of wherever helium came from.J.J. Watt, who played with Moore successful Arizona, wrote that determination was “no way” to process the quality and called him “way excessively special” to beryllium gone already.