Note to self: Be patient.
That was Feb. 21, 2016.
Ten years later — not almost 10 years later … exactly 10 years later — Rondale Moore died. A suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the New Albany (Ind.) Police Department. He was 25.
For people all over Indiana, that news — it broke Saturday night and spread across social media, becoming one of Twitter’s most-discussed topics in the country — was stunning, tragic. Moore grew up in New Albany and while he graduated from Trinity High in Louisville, he played as a sophomore on New Albany’s Class 2016 state championship basketball team.
A teammate on that championship team, one of his best friends — a teammate on youth football and basketball teams, and a neighbor who lived five houses down the street — was future Boston Celtics lottery pick Romeo Langford.
In 2018 Moore arrived as a freshman receiver on the Purdue football team, and needed exactly one game to set a team record for all-purpose yards in a game. As a true freshman he was a first-team All-American and the winner of the 2018 Paul Hornung Award, given to the most versatile player in the country. Two years later Moore entered the 2021 NFL Draft and was selected in the second round by the Arizona Cardinals with the 49th overall pick.
Moore was quiet, reserved. Shy, you could call him. He didn’t enjoy talking with reporters, and not because he was surly. He just knew reporters were going to ask him about a topic he’d prefer not to discuss: Rondale Moore. He had greatness and he had humility, a winning combination in any walk of life. Before the first game of his sophomore 2019 season, I went to a Purdue practice to ask Moore about his next step at Purdue — and to ask, essentially, if it was fair for anyone to expect him to put up better numbers.
Moore recast the question, turning it away from himself. It’s what he did.
“There is no ‘next step,’ personally,” he said. “It’s what I can do to help this team win, and help guys get better. Get into a better bowl game. Compete for a national championship. That’s the next step for all of us.”
He continued.
“As far as putting up ‘better numbers,’” he said, “that doesn’t define me as a football player. It’s how I can work and how I’m treating my teammates. That’s something I value more so than myself.”
Moore was an old soul, 19 going on forever, the world laid out before him like a red carpet, but sometimes that carpet bunches up, snags your feet, knocks you down.
Moore’s time in the NFL, like his time at Purdue, was frontloaded with success. Moore missed most of that sophomore 2019 season at Purdue with a pulled hamstring, then missed three games of the COVID-shortened 2020 college football season with another hamstring injury. In the NFL, his best season was his first — 54 catches, 435 yards in 2021 — but he missed 12 games in 2022 with hamstring and groin injuries, and wasn’t as effective in 2023 (40 catches, 352 yards).
Moore was traded to Atlanta for the 2024 season, but missed it with a knee injury. He signed with Minnesota for the 2025 season, but missed it with another knee injury.
Moore wasn’t in the news again until Saturday — Feb. 21, 2026 — when his body was discovered inside a garage in New Albany, Indiana. He was taken to the Floyd County coroner.
He left behind so much shock and sadness, and that same message pinned to the top of his Twitter page:
Note to self: Be patient.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel onThreads, or onBlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar. Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.