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Athletes often seem like they’re in a league of their own—they can jump higher, run faster, and hit harder than most of us. But when it comes down to their final moments, these extraordinary individuals often focus on something very human: reaching out to the people they love. Take the heartbreaking story of Duncan Edwards, a talented young English soccer player who tragically lost his life in the 1958 plane crash that claimed the lives of eight other Manchester United players. As he lay in a hospital bed, badly injured, his thoughts were with his mother. “Come on, Mum, get me home quick. We’re playing Wolves on Saturday and I can’t miss that,” he told her, as reported by the Mirror. Those were his last words before he succumbed to his injuries.
Final messages, especially texts, can offer even deeper insights into who these athletes were—what mattered most to them in their final days, who they cared about, and what was on their minds. Keep reading to discover the poignant messages star athletes shared before their last moments.
Kobe Bryant
The world was stunned by the sudden loss of Kobe Bryant in 2020 when the basketball legend tragically died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. The crash also claimed the lives of his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others. Kobe was just 41 years old, with an illustrious career that included five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.
In the moments leading up to the crash, Kobe was trying to help a family friend. During a memorial service for Kobe and Gianna, friends and family shared their final memories with them. His widow, Vanessa, told the audience, “They were funny, happy, silly, and they loved life.” She also spoke about the unbreakable bond between Kobe and Gianna, saying, “God knew they couldn’t be on this earth without each other.”
Rob Pelinka, a close friend and the Lakers’ general manager, revealed in his speech that Kobe had been texting him just before the crash. According to NBC News, Kobe was asking Pelinka to connect the young daughter of fellow crash victim John Altobelli with a baseball scout. The Altobellis were family friends, and their other daughter, Alyssa, had been Gianna’s teammate and was also on the helicopter. Pelinka said, “Kobe’s last human act was heroic. He wanted to use his platform to bless and shape a young girl’s future.”
Dave Duerson
Dave Duerson, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants, reached the pinnacle of success in the NFL. However, his story took a tragic turn, becoming a powerful and important cautionary tale for professional football players.
On February 27, 2011, Duerson was found dead in his Florida home after taking his own life. His death shocked many, especially those who knew him as a kind and supportive teammate. Defensive player Shaun Gayle, speaking to the Chicago Tribune, recalled, “When we spoke recently, he sounded great.” Fellow Bear Mike Singletary described Duerson as “the classiest guy I knew,” noting how he was always eager to help others and encourage young players to finish their education.
Duerson’s involvement in the NFL players’ union made him acutely aware of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma. At the time, doctors and NFL officials publicly denied any connection between CTE and the concussions suffered by football players. But Duerson had been experiencing troubling symptoms, including memory loss, blurred vision, and persistent headaches. Before his death, he texted his family, asking them to have his brain studied to determine if he had the same damage seen in other retired players.
Tragically, his suspicions were confirmed. The findings from the research conducted at Boston University prompted a major reevaluation of CTE and the severe impact that professional football can have on players’ bodies and minds. Duerson’s death and the subsequent revelations about CTE brought much-needed attention to the long-term dangers associated with the sport.
Anthony Johnson
Anthony “Rumble” Johnson was a force to be reckoned with in the UFC, earning his nickname for his incredible ability to knock out opponents with a single punch. Tragically, he passed away at just 38 years old in 2022, a loss that stunned the MMA community. According to Yahoo! Sports, Johnson had been battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, a rare immune disorder that ultimately led to organ failure.
Despite his illness, Johnson chose to keep his struggles private, not wanting any special treatment. His friend and fellow UFC champion Kamaru Usman reflected on this, saying, “He was such an incredible athlete,” and noted how Johnson would casually mention he was undergoing dialysis without fully revealing the severity of his condition. UFC president Dana White also paid tribute to Johnson, remembering him as “a great kid” who was known for his exciting fights and rare one-punch knockout power.
Even in his final days, Johnson remained true to his supportive nature. In an interview with ESPN, fellow MMA fighter Corey Anderson shared one of the last text messages he received from Johnson. “Yo, keep your hands up, no mistakes,” Johnson had written, offering encouragement for Anderson’s upcoming match. “I don’t see this guy beating you, bro. It’s your fight.” This message was typical of Johnson, who was always there to check in on his friends and offer support while they were in training camp. His kindness and dedication to those he cared about left a lasting impact on the people around him, both inside and outside the cage.
Shane Warne
Shane Warne, affectionately known as the “King of Spin,” was more than just a cricketing legend in Australia—he was a national treasure. After his untimely death in 2022, the country honored him with a state memorial service and posthumously appointed him as an Officer of the Order of Australia. Warne passed away at the age of 52 from a heart attack while vacationing on the Thai island of Koh Samui, as reported by CNN.
In the days following his death, sports reporter Peter Ford shared a glimpse into Warne’s character by revealing the thousands of text messages they had exchanged over the years. Despite not being close personal friends—they had never even spoken over the phone—Ford described their relationship as a professional one that revolved around meaningful conversations, often about Warne’s children. Ford spoke highly of Warne, saying, “I have no doubt, absolutely a very decent human being. Probably flawed, larrikin, ratbag, all those words we’ve used. Sometimes his own worst enemy, but I think a really terrific bloke.”
One of Warne’s final acts of kindness was reaching out to Ford just before his fatal heart attack. Ford recalled to 2GB’s Ben Fordham that Warne had contacted him after seeing a tweet about Ford’s dog passing away. “Early Friday afternoon I got [a message]. He contacted me ’cause he’d read a tweet that I’d done about my dog dying and he contacted me and said, ‘How are you going?'” This small gesture highlighted the cricketer’s thoughtfulness and the genuine care he had for those around him, even in his last moments.
Roy Halladay
On his last day in 2017, instead of joining his wife Brandy for lunch, Roy Halladay, the former star pitcher, decided to take his cherished plane out for a flight. This decision came despite his ongoing battle with depression, something Brandy shared in Todd Zolecki’s biography “Doc: The Life of Roy Halladay,” according to The Star. However, during his flight, Roy seemed to have second thoughts and sent his wife a text apologizing for not being with her. “I feel like you’re upset with me. I should’ve just gone with you,” he wrote, expressing his regret. Brandy reassured him that she wasn’t angry but was disappointed he didn’t join her. “I’m not mad at you,” she replied. “I’m just disappointed that you couldn’t just go with me.” Roy then shifted the conversation to their son’s recital later that day, to which Brandy responded with love, urging him to come to their son’s school. He replied, “I love you too. I’m sorry. I should’ve just gone with you. Another wasted day.”
Tragically, Roy’s plane crashed into the Gulf Coast waters around noon that day. The heartbreaking news quickly spread, and his home was soon surrounded by reporters. Sadly, Roy’s sons learned of their father’s death from their classmates before the news could be broken to them by family. A later investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that Roy had been performing dangerous high-rise maneuvers during the flight, maneuvers he shouldn’t have attempted, especially considering the mixture of opioids, amphetamine, a muscle relaxant, and zolpidem (commonly known as Ambien) found in his system at the time of his death. Despite this tragic end, Roy Halladay’s legacy as a baseball great was cemented when both the Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays retired his number, and he was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019.
Junior Seau
In a tragic parallel to Dave Duerson’s story, NFL star Junior Seau also took his own life after experiencing symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The night before he died, Seau sent a brief but poignant text message to his ex-wife and children that simply said, “I love you.”
Reflecting on Seau’s final days, his ex-wife Gina shared with ABC News that there were signs of trouble that, in hindsight, pointed to CTE. “A lot of things, towards the end of his life, patterns that we saw and things that worried us, it makes sense now,” Gina explained, describing how his mental and emotional health had deteriorated into severe depression. After Seau’s death, his family had his brain tested for CTE, and the results were definitive: he was suffering from the disease, which has been strongly linked to suicidal thoughts and other mental health issues. It was likely the result of the countless blows to the head Seau endured during his 20-year NFL career. Gina noted the brutal nature of the sport, saying, “The head-to-head contact, the collisions are just, they’re out of control.” She added, “He was a warrior and he loved the game, but… I know that he didn’t love the end of his life.”
Following the confirmation of Seau’s CTE diagnosis, the NFL expressed gratitude for the Seau family’s cooperation with the National Institutes of Health, promising to increase their efforts in researching concussions. At the time of Seau’s death in 2013, CTE could only be diagnosed posthumously, but ongoing research efforts, such as those reported by the Mayo Clinic, are aimed at finding ways to detect the condition in living individuals.
Tyler Skaggs
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MLB pitcher Tyler Skaggs was just 27 when he was tragically found dead in a Dallas hotel room with a deadly mix of fentanyl, alcohol, and oxycodone in his system, as reported by CBS News. His untimely death sparked an investigation into opioid use among his teammates, leading to the trial of Eric Kay, a former Los Angeles Angels employee who had supplied Skaggs with the pills that caused his overdose.
During the trial, several of Skaggs’ former teammates, including pitchers Matt Harvey, Mike Morin, Cam Bedrosian, and first baseman C.J. Cron, testified that Kay had been providing drugs to players. Harvey, in particular, expressed deep regret, admitting that he wished he had warned Skaggs to stay away from the dangerous substances. He reflected on the pressures of professional baseball, saying, “In baseball, you do everything you can to stay on the field. At the time, I felt as a teammate I was just helping him get through whatever he needed to get through.” According to the Los Angeles Times, on the night of his death, Skaggs had been messaging Kay about hotel rooms, using phrases like “469” and “Come by,” instead of replying to his wife Carli’s usual goodnight text.
In October 2022, Kay was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison, as reported by ESPN. Following this tragic event, Carli Skaggs and Tyler’s mother founded a charity to support young athletes in Tyler’s memory. The Los Angeles Angels also honored his legacy by wearing his number 45 jersey in tribute to him.
Steve McNair
On the night of his tragic death, former NFL quarterback Steve McNair was exchanging text messages with a woman he was romantically involved with, Sahel Kazemi. According to Nashville police, Kazemi had reached out to the 36-year-old McNair on July 3, 2009, asking for $2,000 to pay off a phone bill, expressing the financial stress she was under. The texts, later released by the police, also showed that the two were planning to meet up that evening. After McNair confirmed he had transferred the money, Kazemi repeatedly asked to come over, and McNair told her to leave the front door of his condo open for him. Tragically, when McNair returned home, Kazemi shot and killed him before taking her own life.
Local authorities revealed that Kazemi had been worried about another woman possibly being involved with McNair at the time of the shooting. The shocking news of McNair’s death sent ripples through the football community. His former team, the Tennessee Titans, honored his memory with a public memorial at LP Field. Team owner K.S. Adams Jr. expressed his sorrow, saying, “He was one of the finest players to play for our organization and one of the most beloved players by our fans.” Adams praised McNair’s heart and leadership, noting that he had led the team to unprecedented heights, including their only Super Bowl appearance.