Former Detroit Lions defensive back Stanley Wilson Jr. reportedly died earlier this month after collapsing at a mental hospital.
TMZ reported that Wilson was moved to the hospital on Feb. 1 after he was deemed incompetent to stand trial in a vandalism case following an arrest in August of last year.
Sources told the publication that he collapsed and died shortly after arriving to the facility and that no foul play was suspected.
Wilson was drafted in the third round of the 2005 NFL Draft out of Stanford University. He played three seasons for the Lions before suffering a career-ending injury to his Achilles tendon.
Wilson was arrested three times between 2016-17 for burglary, reportedly naked and high on methamphetamine, according to Sports Casting.
Wilson was the son of Stanley Wilson Sr., who also played in the NFL and had serious legal and mental health challenges off the field.
Wilson Sr. played running back for the Cincinnati Bengals after being drafted in the 9th round of the 1983 NFL Draft out of the University of Oklahoma.
Wilson Sr. was suspended for two seasons because of his addiction to cocaine.
The low point of his career happened in what should have been the high point: playing in Super Bowl XXIII in 1989.
While getting ready for the game, Wilson Sr. was found high again on cocaine after skipping a team meeting and was banned from playing in the game.
Wilson went missing during the Super Bowl while authorities searched for his whereabouts.
“This just shows how terrible this [drug] stuff is,” said Wilson Sr.’s agent, Reggie Turner. “His mother and father are here for the game and they are just devastated. They don’t know what has happened to their son. No one has found him yet.”
Bengals Coach Sam Wyche was saddened over the incident and lamented how drugs overtook Wilson Sr.’s life.
“The tragedy with Stanley Wilson is not in a football sense,” he said. “There was a precious life that was lost last night to something I heard George Bush say he was going to purge this country of. And I plead with our president to do that. Because Stanley Wilson didn’t screw up; the cocaine overtook him. And I don’t know why our country is going to hell in a handbasket, and we don’t even know it. This [Wilson incident] is a symptom of it.”