Moss’ toughest opponent: his health
Former UM, Ely star fought many issues
Former South Florida football star Tyrone Moss knew he had to get back in shape. Even at his peak more than a decade ago, he struggled with his weight.
And after his record-setting days as a running back ended, his plight only got worse. Moss was plagued by hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity and congestive heart failure.
On Thursday, he lost his fight. The 33-year-old father of three collapsed as he was leaving a hospital after receiving treatment for his heart.
He was rushed to the emergency room, but within minutes had a “cardiac event” and died, according to a report from the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Moss, 33, originally from Pompano Beach, starred as a running back at Blanche Ely High and the University of Miami. For many who knew him, the former athlete’s death has been a shock. For others, including his former trainer Tony Sands, it has been a wake-up call.
Sands had not trained or worked with Moss for at least 10
years. But the two talked last month, and Moss said then he was considering taking up jogging to try to get fit.
“Sometimes we don’t know how sick we are until we go into the hospital and we’re finding out more things are wrong than what we thought,” Sands said. “I think this caught his family by surprise.”
Moss was admitted July 23 to Memorial Hospital West. A cardiac catheter was inserted on July 25 and he also was given a LifeVest, an external defibrillator that can detect irregular heartbeats and provide a shock to the patient, the medical examiner’s office said.
As Moss was leaving the Pembroke Pines hospital and waiting for his ride the night of July 26, he passed out. Moss was still responsive when he was brought to the emergency room, but within minutes had a “cardiac event,” and did not have a pulse, the report said. Hospital staff efforts to revive Moss were not successful and he died from apparent heart failure, the medical examiner’s office said.
Moss did not have any history of drug or alcohol abuse. He also did not have a primary care physician, the report said.
Sands had not trained Moss since he’d left UM and was trying to work his way into the National Football League.
“He didn’t share that much with me, but you know when people have put on weight,” Sands said of their conversation in
June. “And when people have put on weight, that’s something you always worry about.”
Even as Moss was setting records, he was fighting against genetics and battled to keep his weight around 205 pounds. Moss was bigger than other running backs in South Florida, with a strongly built lower trunk and legs, and massive calves, Sands said.
Sands, a former threesport star at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, was a running back at University of Kansas and briefly played in the NFL before becoming a trainer.
“You have to make sure you take care of yourself, and that was always an issue [with Moss],” Sands said.
Moss graduated from Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach in 2003. He rushed for 7,105 yards during his high school career, a Broward County record, and led the Tigers to a state title in his junior year.
He was a Hurricane from 2003 to 2006, where he had seven 100-yard games, putting him 10th on the team’s all-time list. He also led the Atlantic Coast Conference with 12 touchdowns in 2005, and placed seventh on UM’s singleseason rankings. Moss had a knee injury and didn’t play in the NFL.
For nearly five years up until the day he died, Moss worked for City Furniture and was promoted to senior service technician in October 2014. As the lead delivery man on a truck, Moss would handle customer service, the company said.
“Anyone who ever
worked with Tyrone knows that his professionalism and sense of humor were his best attributes,” Jon Greenberg, the Tamarac company’s managing director of operations, said by email Tuesday. “He always had a welcoming smile and spoke often and passionately about his children. Tyrone will be missed by all of us at City Furniture.”
Moss had strong ties to Pompano Beach and nurtured those connections. As a child, Moss played in McNair Park on the city’s youth tackle football team, the Pompano Cowboys, said Scott Moore, recreation manager in Pompano Beach.
For several years after Moss stopped playing the game, he would return to the park to share his time and knowledge in clinics with Cowboys players who ranged in age from 4 to 14.
“He was a positive impact on those kids, by coming back,” Moore said. “All the kids knew who he was.”
Moss was a natural leader to children, something Sands said he witnessed during Moss’ workouts while he was still enrolled at Blanche Ely and they would train at city parks in Pompano Beach and Deerfield Beach.
“The young kids would go in the park just to watch him,” Sands said. “Even though he was a high school kid, he was able to pull in little kids, youth league kids that said they wanted to be like Tyrone Moss.”