According to officials, Keith McCants, a former NFL player, was found dead at his home in Florida on Thursday following a suspected drug overdose. He was 53 years old.
Police were dispatched to a St. Petersburg home at 5:10 a.m. Thursday, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. McCants was found dead inside the house where the 911 call was presumably made.
“It appears it was a drug overdose, but we are awaiting confirmation from the medical examiner’s office,” sheriff’s spokesperson Amanda Sinni said. “This is still an open investigation.”
McCants spent three seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before moving on to the Houston Oilers and Arizona Cardinals before retiring in 1995. Over the years, McCants has been arrested multiple times for drug possession and drug paraphernalia.
Robert Blackmon, a candidate for mayor of St. Petersburg, said he and others who knew McCants attempted to turn his life around in 2010.
“This morning, we lost that battle,” Blackmon said in a Facebook post.
“We began to talk about his future again. The next 20 years. Buying a boat. His signature grin was back. But for every battle I could help him fight, there were others he had to face alone,” Blackmon said.
After retiring from football, McCants joined the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources as the state’s first Black marine police officer.
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