Missing Former NFL Player Found Dead

Louis Nix was 29
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 1, 2021 3:00 AM CST
Missing Former NFL Player Found Dead
In this Saturday, Aug. 31, 2013, file photo, Notre Dame defensive lineman Louis Nix III (1) prepares to get into his defensive stance during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Temple in South Bend, Ind.   (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

Louis Nix, a standout football player for Notre Dame before being briefly drafted to the NFL, was found dead Saturday in Florida. The 29-year-old had been reported missing Wednesday, the AP reports. Not much has been made public about his death, but the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office announced it after pulling a vehicle matching the description of Nix's vehicle from a retention pond across the street from the apartment he shared with his girlfriend, NBC News reports. Nix's mother tells News4Jax all she knows is that her son is dead. Authorities "said they couldn't give me any more information," she says; it's not even clear whether his body was in the car or nearby. She adds that they also told her they don't currently suspect foul play.

Nix was drafted to the Houston Texans in 2014, but injuries kept him from ever playing a game, and he left the league in 2017. "I just want him to be remembered by being a guy that was able to bring joy to others and being someone that has the biggest smile," says one of his former teammates on Notre Dame's Fighting Irish. "He was a big, loving teddy bear," his mom tells the Florida Times-Union. Nix survived being shot in the chest outside a gas station Dec. 8 during an attempted robbery, and his mother speculates he could have had a heart attack or medical emergency related to that. "It's all a mystery right now until they give me more information about what happened." (More Florida stories.)

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