{"id":865167,"date":"2026-04-12T23:58:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/865167\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T23:58:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:58:51","slug":"former-nfl-player-30-dies-during-devastating-car-accident-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/865167\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL player, 30, dies during devastating car accident in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-4483\/index.html\" class=\"author\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JACK TOLEDO<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  19:40 EDT, 12 April 2026   |  Updated:  19:53 EDT, 12 April 2026   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Chris Payton-Jones, a former NFL player for four teams, has died in a car accident at age 30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">While driving a sedan in Alachua County, <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/florida\/index.html\" id=\"mol-09ede220-36c8-11f1-aa9a-47a75f4c6ad3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Florida<\/a>, on Saturday, Payton-Jones collided head-on with a pickup truck, according to<a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" class=\"class\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/04\/12\/30-year-old-jacksonville-man-killed-in-wrong-way-head-on-crash-in-gainesville\/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=snd&amp;utm_content=wjxt4\"> News 4 Jacksonville<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He was the only fatality, while the truck\u2019s three passengers received only minor injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Payton-Jones\u2019s family confirmed his death as tributes flooded social media honoring his legacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Between 2020 and 2022, Jones signed with the Lions, <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/tennessee\/index.html\" id=\"mol-09ef41b0-36c8-11f1-aa9a-47a75f4c6ad3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tennessee<\/a> Titans, <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/minnesota\/index.html\" id=\"mol-09eea570-36c8-11f1-aa9a-47a75f4c6ad3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Minnesota<\/a> Vikings, and <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/las-vegas\/index.html\" id=\"mol-09ee5750-36c8-11f1-aa9a-47a75f4c6ad3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Las Vegas<\/a> Raiders.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-577e7d4ec83ea13d\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/107843995-15727395-Chris_Payton_Jones_a_former_NFL_player_for_four_teams_has_died_i-a-4_177603709929.jpeg\" height=\"425\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Chris Payton-Jones, a former NFL player for four teams, has died in a car accident at age 30\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Chris Payton-Jones, a former NFL player for four teams, has died in a car accident at age 30<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-629a76d48240e3f1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/107844003-15727395-image-a-2_1776036847987.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"While driving a sedan in Alachua County, Florida , on Saturday, Payton-Jones collided head-on with a pickup truck\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">While driving a sedan in Alachua County, Florida , on Saturday, Payton-Jones collided head-on with a pickup truck<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Former NFL player, 30, dies during devastating car accident in Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By JACK TOLEDO Published: 19:40 EDT, 12 April 2026 | Updated: 19:53 EDT, 12 April 2026 Chris Payton-Jones,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[787,3225,7,6,817],"class_list":{"0":"post-865167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sport"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116394459402286262","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}