Athletes' Tragic Final Texts Before They Died

A text message is a tiny bit of data, an instantaneous and necessarily brief and direct form of communication. Billions of texts invisibly fly around the world every day with such regularity and normalcy that it's easy to take them, and the technology that makes them possible, for granted. But they can be quite poignant — a text message is a written document of a random, fleeting moment. And if tragedy strikes, or death arrives, an ordinary text message can serve as a human being's preserved last words, or one of their last interactions with another person.

Texts can be special, and final ones can be seen as especially meaningful, particularly if they're delivered by famous people. Many famous athletes who lived and died during the age of texting left behind something just before they expired — haunting last words of celebrities for their loved ones and fans of their athletic prowess and accomplishment. Here are the tragically final texts sent by elite sportspeople.

A first-round pick by the Los Angeles Angels in the 2009 draft, pitcher Tyler Skaggs made it to the major leagues for parts of two seasons in 2012 and 2013 with the Arizona Diamondbacks, before the Angels reacquired him and put him in its starting rotation in 2016. Over seven seasons, he'd pitch in 96 games but found momentum in 2019, amassing a 7-7 record.

On July 1, 2019, Skaggs, in Arlington, Texas, for a series against the Texas Rangers, was discovered dead in his hotel room. A medical examiner would later rule that the 27-year-old died from choking on vomit triggered by an accidental overdose of the painkiller fentanyl, although he also was found to have oxycodone and alcohol in his body. In 2022, ex-Los Angeles Angels communications director Eric Kay was sentenced to 22 years in prison for supplying the drugs that killed Skaggs. 

Following a rough pitching outing on June 29, 2019, Skaggs sent a text to Kay, according to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times, asking for something to deal with his pain, possibly still lingering from an ankle sprain the previous spring. On June 30, while Skaggs was suited up for a game in Los Angeles, the conversation picked back up, with Kay told by Skaggs, "Don't need many." Hours later, the team flew to Texas, and upon checking into his hotel, Skaggs texted his room number to Kay, asking, "Come by."

Shane Warne was such a beloved and respected player of test cricket (when top-level international squads square off over several days) that when he died of natural causes in 2022 at the age of 52, his home country of Australia's government honored him with an official state funeral at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Few matched what Warne accomplished over a cricket career that lasted from 1992 to 2007, including numerous records for hits and points.

In 2007, Warne made headlines over the dissolution of his marriage, and wishing to respond to certain allegations, contacted a Melbourne, Australia, station where entertainment reporter Peter Ford worked. Warne asked for and received Ford's number and texted him a statement, beginning a purely text-based conversation that would last for more than 15 years. Just before his death, Warne sent a thoughtful text to Ford. "He'd read a tweet that I'd done about my dog dying, and he contacted me and said 'how you going' and that's why it became all the more impossible to believe when I got that news in the middle of the night," Ford told 2GB Sydney.

In the 1980s, wrestler Chris Benoit competed around Montreal and Calgary and then jumped to New Japan Pro Wrestling, where, as masked fighter The Pegasus Kid, he won a light-heavyweight title. He moved into the U.S. wrestling circuit in the 1990s, participating in Extreme Championship Wrestling and the made-for-cable-TV World Championship Wrestling, where he became the promotion's champion in 2000. Professional disputes led Benoit to jump to the World Wrestling Entertainment, where he'd claim the 2004 heavyweight title.

Over a three-day period in June 2007, the wrestler died under suspicious circumstances — Benoit, 40, presumably killed his wife, his son, and himself. Depression and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a form of brain damage suffered after repeatedly enduring concussions in wrestling matches, likely led to Benoit's decision to commit such violent acts. The last person that Benoit connected with was his friend and fellow professional wrestler Chavo Guerrero. "I think that he texted me after everything happened, after everything went down," Guerrero said on "Insight with Chris Van Vliet," meaning the murders of Benoit's wife and son. "He was texting me going, 'this is how you can find me,'" he added, believing that Benoit was preparing and alerting him to the eventual discovery of the bodies of himself and his family. "I think he texted me probably right before he committed suicide."

Hamilton, Ontario-born hockey goaltender Ray Emery suited up for his first NHL games in the 2002-2003 season for the Ottawa Senators. Until 2016, he'd bounce around different minor leagues and various NHL teams, keeping goal for the Philadelphia Flyers, Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, and Philadelphia Flyers. For the 2012-2013 season, Emery was awarded the William M. Jennings Trophy, as he led his team to a league-leading goal defense.

In the early morning of July 15, 2018, Emery and some friends took a boat out to Hamilton Harbour in Lake Ontario. The water-experienced Emery decided to take a vigorous swim. Physically compromised, having not slept the night before after participating in his first hockey match in more than a year, Emery never resurfaced, and his body was found that afternoon. Emery was 35 years old. The previous evening, before his game, a charity match organized by one of the NHL teams, the Philadelphia Flyers, Emery sent a group text to his family, linking to an Instagram post announcing the game. "Wish me luck," Emery wrote (according to The Athletic). "Hope I don't pop a hip."

During the highly competitive 2017 college football regular season, Washington State amassed a 9-3 record, cementing third place in the Pac-12 North and a berth in the Holiday Bowl. Backup sophomore quarterback Tyler Hilinski saw some playing time during that winning season and in the bowl game, filling in for injured starter Luke Falk and making his case to be the team's starting QB upon Falk's graduation.

On January 16, 2018, Hilinski was discovered dead in his apartment in Pullman, Washington. It was later observed that the quarterback showed signs of CTE, the suite of brain damage and mental health issues often caused by repeated sports-related concussions. In the hours before Hilinksi's death, he'd sent a series of texts. He wrote a group message to his football team's wide receivers to remind them about an upcoming off-season workout, and then told his brother that he'd like to set up a time where they could play the video game "Fortnite" together. Hilinksi also texted a former girlfriend, writing: "I'm sorry for everything," according to Sports Illustrated.

Combining physical intensity with speed and an emphasis on the psychological aspect of his sport, wrestler Jon Huber competed for several promotions under the names Brodie Lee and Luke Harper (and the nickname "The Exalted One"). A veteran of independent, World Wrestling Entertainment, and NXT circuits, he was a two-time tag team champion and after joining All-Elite Wrestling in 2020, he won that league's inaugural TNT Championship.

On December 26, 2020, Huber, who'd checked into the Mayo Clinic for treatment of a lung problem not related to the then-rampant COVID-19 pandemic, died at age 41. A few days after Huber's death, the wrestler's wife, Amanda Huber, posted to Instagram screenshots of the couple's final text exchange — heartbreakingly mundane, effusive, optimistic, and affectionate. "I love you. Holy f*** do I love you. We're going on vacation after all this and we're gonna do everything we ever wanted. Yolo for real," Huber wrote. To his wife's reply of "I love you," he responded, "How's dinner."