Jeff Gladney, Arizona Cardinals Cornerback, Dead at 25

Jeff Gladney, an NFL cornerback who signed with the Arizona Cardinals back in March, died on Monday morning, according to his agent Brian Overstreet, per Sports Illustrated. He was 25 years old. It was reported that Gladney was one of two people who died in a car accident in Dallas. 

Several of Gladney's teammates from TCU went to social media to send messages to him. "Lost my Brother, my best friend, my right hand man... ain't too much more I can take man damn!" Jalen Reagor wrote on Twitter. "R.I.P Jeff Gladney, brother watch over me please."

Former defensive end L.J. Collier wrote on social media: "Man aint no way man RIP jefe man i watched him come from the scout team to a team captain to a first round pick jeff was a good friend and great teammate imma miss you family RIP jeff."

Gladney was selected No. 31 overall by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2020 NFL Draft. He played in 16 games during his rookie season and recorded 81 tackles, three passes defended and one forced fumble. He was released from the Vikings in August 2021 after he was indicted for domestic violence charges. He was found not guilty of the charges against him in March. 

"Jeff Gladney is a very, very talented corner," Cardinals general manager Steve Keim told ArizonaSports 98.7 earlier this month, per Sports Illustrated." Former first-round pick, played quite a bit as a rookie. (Former Vikings head coach) Mike Zimmer is a very tough defensive coach with those defensive backs and Zim is very high on him. He's a tackler. He's physical. He's very twitchy and explosive in his movements, He's got very good mirror ability for a corner, We really liked him coming out of TCU."  

Gladney played college football at TCU from 2015 to 2019. In his career, Gladney was selected to the All-Big 12 Second Team in 2018 and the All-Big 12 First Team in 2019 after recorded 31 tackles, 1.5 sacks, one interception and 14 passes defended. Gladney grew up in Texas and played high school football at New Boston High School. 247Sports listed Gladney as a three-star prospect and the 187th best player in the state.