Former standout NFL wide receiver Mike Williams has died.
According to an announcement by the NFL Network, the 36-year-old died from injuries sustained during a construction accident in Florida.
William’s agent, Hadley Engelhard, provided an update in a statement to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media. He noted that Williams’ was “injured while performing electrical work.”
Engelhard added: “He will be missed. He fought hard his whole life. Prayers to his family.”
The injuries were reportedly sustained while Williams was working in Hillsborough County, Florida, on Aug. 21. Witnesses shared a steel beam fell on Williams’ head.
Tierney Lyle, the mother of Williams’ eight-year-old daughter, told WIVB4 in Buffalo that Williams had been placed on life support but was still responsive.
“We need prayer warriors to continue praying and spread the word,” Lyle told the outlet, noting Williams was still in an uphill battle.
Friends of the former Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers told the New York Post, “The initial on-site incident wasn’t believed to be fatal, but things got more serious when the laceration became infected [and] that led to Williams … being induced into a coma.”
There were reports that Williams died a week ago, but those rumors were incorrect.
A GoFundMe page set up by Latrina Moore included a message from Williams’ father, Wendell Muhammad, noting that the “steel beam falling on Williams’s head caused a “massive head injury, creating swelling in his brain and swelling on his spinal cord that … ruptured.”
The Post noted that Williams played for the Buccaneers and Bills from 2010-14 and started 52 of the 54 games he appeared in for the Tampa Bay team, finishing second in the 2010 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year voting to former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Sam Bradford.
Williams is survived by a 10-year-old son Mike Jr., an eight-year-old daughter Mya, and her mother Tierney Lyle.
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