The Titans suffered a loss of one of their teammates Monday. Tampa Bay Police reported that early Monday morning they found Tennessee Titan wide receiver O.J. Murdock in his car outside of his old high school with a self inflicted gun shot wound.
“At approximately 8:30 a.m., officers discovered the victim’s body in his car in front of Middleton High School with an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound,” the report read. “He was transported to Tampa General Hospital in critical condition where he died at 10:43 a.m. He is a Tennessee Titans football player.”
When training camp opened Murdock didn’t report with the rest of the team. According to Titans head coach Mike Munchak, Murdock called them and told them he had some personal things come up. What those issue were haven’t been revealed at this time. The team release the following statement:
“We are shocked and saddened to hear of O.J. Murdock’s death this morning. In his brief time here, a number of our players, coaches and staff had grown close to O.J., and this is a difficult time for them. He spent the last year battling back from an Achilles injury as he prepared for this year’s training camp. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends as they try to cope with this tragedy.”
According to the Tennessean, the last time Murdock talked to his old high school football coach Harry Hubbard in November, and everything seemed fine.
“He was very upbeat and he told me once he got his injury healed he was going to come back and try out again,” Hubbard said. “He sounded very positive about it.”
“Today was a shocker to everybody,” Hubbard continued. “I think it shocked the whole community. I know for a fact if you would have called me three hours earlier I wouldn’t have been able to talk because of the impact it’s had on so many lives, including myself. … When I talked to him and I figured everything was going right. It was quite a surprise, quite a surprise.”
The same goes for Murdock’s agent Hadley Engelhard who said that he talked to him last week and he seemed excited for the opportunity as well.
