Sports
Ex-Bucs Receiver Mike Williams Dies At 36 After Construction Accident
Mike Williams played college football at Syracuse before being drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Correction: A previous version of this report erroneously reported former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Williams died Tuesday, Sept. 5. A new version of this article corrects that Williams was on life support and died Tuesday, Sept. 12. Patch regrets the error.
TAMPA, FL — Mike Williams, a former wide receiver who played for the Buccaneers, died Tuesday, more than a week after a construction accident, according to the NFL. He was 36.
Between 2010 and 2014, Williams played college football at Syracuse before being drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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In the description of a GoFundMe campaign shared Tuesday, Williams' father Wendell Muhammed said a steel beam fell on his head while he was working on a construction job, causing massive head and spinal cord injuries and complete paralysis in his right arm and lower body from the waist down.
It is unclear when the accident occurred, though Muhammed wrote that Williams passed out around 9 p.m. Friday and was rushed to the ICU.
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Doctors discovered that Williams' diaphragm was pressing on his lungs, causing fluid buildup, according to Muhammed. Despite treatment that allowed Williams' lungs to clear, he had yet to regain consciousness as of Monday, Muhammed said.
In the GoFundMe, Muhammed requested donations to help pay for visits from his home in Dallas, Texas to Tampa, where Williams was hospitalized.
"I live and work in Dallas so I will be going back and forth until my son fully recovers," Muhammed wrote.
The plan as of Sunday was for doctors to try to wake Williams up Wednesday morning, according to Muhammed. But late Tuesday night, sources began to report that Williams had died.
"Multiple sources have confirmed to me that former Syracuse and Bills WR Mike Williams has passed away following injuries suffered during an accident while working at a construction site," Jon Scott, Buffalo Bills beat reporter at Spectrum News 1, tweeted just after 9 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5.
Latrina Williams-Moore, the GoFundMe campaign's organizer, told Patch on Wednesday, Sept. 6 that Williams had died.
She added that the campaign will be updated with new information later in the day.
This story is being updated.
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