It has been a painful month for Gerald McCoy.
Death has shadowed the former three-time All-Pro defensive tackle at seemingly every turn, testing his spirit.
On Oct. 3, former Ravens defensive lineman Arthur Jones, 39, died. No cause of death was released, though Jones had faced health issues in recent years. Jones and McCoy were part of the 2010 NFL Draft class and trained together for the combine, forever bonded by the prospect of Sunday stardom. On Oct. 15, McCoy’s uncle passed away. Then, on Saturday, news broke that his former Tampa Bay teammate Doug Martin had died in the custody of Oakland police. He was 36.
Martin was the fifth former NFL teammate of McCoy’s to die before the age of 40.
“You don’t want to get to a point where you become numb to it,” McCoy, 37, told The Athletic. “It’s just hard to deal with, and it’s unbelievable. This keeps happening.”
He shared his distress on social media after the news of Martin’s death:
Man that’s the 5th teammate I’ve lost. Yea I’m done for the day. Yall go check on yall people man.
— Gerald McCoy (@Geraldini93) October 19, 2025
The list is heavy. Geno Hayes (33, liver disease), Daniel Te’o-Nesheim (30, overdose), Mike Williams (36, bacterial sepsis), Vincent Jackson (38, chronic alcohol use), and now Martin, whose cause of death has yet to be released as an investigation continues. McCoy played with all of them in Tampa Bay. In addition, one of his former college teammates at Oklahoma, Austin Box, died of an opoid overdose in 2011 at 22. And Gaines Adams, who was a Buccaneers defensive lineman, died of a heart condition at 26 in January 2010, just months before the team drafted McCoy.
Te’o-Nesheim and Jackson were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) posthumously. Martin’s former agent, Brian Murphy, released a statement that Martin’s parents were seeking help for him in the hours before his death.
“Doug’s parents were actively seeking medical assistance for him and had contacted local authorities for support,” the statement read. “Feeling overwhelmed and disoriented, Doug fled his home during the night and entered a neighbor’s residence two doors down, where he was taken into custody by police. An investigation into what transpired as he was detained is underway.”
Jackson’s death may have been the most agonizing for McCoy. In 2021, Jackson was found unresponsive in a hotel room in Brandon, Fla. The official cause of death was determined to be chronic alcohol use. He was later diagnosed with stage 2 CTE, a degenerative brain disease that has been connected to repetitive brain trauma.
Jackson, nicknamed “The Ultimate Pro” in Tampa Bay’s locker room, was one of the first players to show McCoy the difference between “being a professional and being a pro.” He was also one of his closest friends.
After Jackson’s death, one sentiment echoed across group chats and phone calls among former Buccaneers.
Utter disbelief.
“How he carried himself in the building, how he did interviews, how he practiced,” McCoy said. “How he took care of his body, how he was with his family, everything. That’s who V-Jack was. So when we lost him, it was like, ‘not him, of all people.’ He was Captain America. So that one hit us probably the hardest.”
Vincent Jackson’s nickname in the Tampa Bay locker room was “The Ultimate Pro.” (Cliff Welch / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
McCoy had stayed in touch with Williams, speaking with him “not too long” before he died. He said Williams was “up and up.” Weeks later, he was gone.
McCoy hadn’t spoken with Martin in some time, but had talked with former Bengals teammate George Iloka, who had just seen him.
“He said he had the biggest grin on his face, the biggest smile,” McCoy said. “Just full of life, like Doug always was. Doug loved to dance. He loved to tell jokes. He loved to have a great time.”
But few saw the storm brewing behind his grin. In McCoy’s experience, most people never do. It’s not the loss of wealth that haunts athletes, he said. It’s the loss of identity — the emptiness left when the game is gone.
“You’re on top of the world. You get put on a pedestal. You get put in a routine, and that becomes a part of who you are,” McCoy said. “That’s all you know when you do it for long enough … then you retire and all the fame is gone.
“Your identity has been tied to this game, and you find out after you’re done playing, you don’t even know who you are as a person. You get lost. That’s where you see the depression, that’s where you see the substance abuse, that’s where you see people start making all these bad decisions.”
It’s not just the loss of self, but also the reason they play sports to begin with, that torments former athletes, according to the 2010 third overall pick from Oklahoma. To run for a touchdown, sack a quarterback, hit a home run, score a goal or hit a 3-pointer is an unmatched adrenaline rush, he said. To bathe in the adulation of thousands of fans every week is something that can’t be replicated.
“I just want people to understand it’s tougher on us when we’re done playing than you guys think,” McCoy said. “It may seem like it’s all glamorous. ‘Look at the life you got to live.’ Yeah, but mental illness is a real thing, and people struggle mentally after playing this game. It ain’t just football, it’s pro sports period.
“Nothing can give you that high. So when it’s gone, the cheers are gone, the competition is gone, the routine is gone. You get in this lost space, and it happens to a lot of athletes, man, and I just hope that that wasn’t what happened to Doug.”
Doug Martin celebrates a Buccaneers first down during a 2015 game against the Eagles. (Elsa / Getty Images)
The second half of his social media post was the message he hoped people would hear: “Y’all go check on y’all people.”
He’s followed his own plea: calling former teammates, checking in on anyone whose number he still has, including current Buccaneers stars Lavonte David and Mike Evans.
Evans left Monday night’s 24-9 loss to the Detroit Lions with a concussion and a broken collarbone. It was his first game back after injuring his hamstring in Week 3.
After the deaths of five former teammates, Gerald McCoy is checking in on anyone whose number he still has. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
McCoy, who played nine seasons with the Bucs and also suited up for the Raiders, said he’s found peace in faith and understanding himself. While he believed he had more left in the tank, injuries forced him off the field. His healing began with a truth he’s always known: football was something he did, not who he was.
“I found out a long time ago the difference in talents and gifts,” he said. “I had a talent for playing football. It wasn’t my gift. My gift is communication and being able to impart on people whatever it is, whether I was a captain on the football field, or whether I’m in the media.”
McCoy, now an analyst for NFL Network, has been lucky enough to find his purpose away from the field that has fulfilled him. He, maybe painfully more than most, knows that not everyone finds their gift outside of the sporting arena.
“I fear that for a lot of people, the game becomes who they are,” McCoy said. “When they lose that, they lose a piece of themselves — and start searching for it.”
