Former Florida Gators, Oakland Raiders linebacker Neiron Ball dead at 27
Former Florida Gators linebacker Neiron Ball died Tuesday morning, his sister, Natalie Ball Myricks, announced in a Facebook post.
Ball battled a rare, congenital condition called arteriovenous malformation (AVM), which is a condition causing the brain’s blood vessels to get tangled and rupture.
He was 27 years old.
Washington Redskins tight end Jordan Reed, who was a teammate of Ball’s at UF, donated $10,000 in July to Ball’s GoFundMe page as he continued his fight against AVM.
Urban Meyer recruited Ball out of Jackson, Georgia, as part of his final recruiting class in the Swamp. Ball fought through health issues to become an NFL draft pick in 2015. The Oakland Raiders picked him in the fifth round. His NFL career, though, was derailed with AVM that saw him suffering from an aneurysm in September 2018.
Since Ball’s passing was announced, there were several tributes to him on Twitter from the Gators official football account to former teammates.
Will Muschamp coached Ball from 2011 to 2014. He played with the Gators from 2010 to 2014, though he missed the 2011 season due to brain surgery from AVM. He had 94 tackles in 45 career games with the Gators.
Ball’s health began declining in 2018 when a blood vessel ruptured in his brain, which later resulted in an aneurysm.
This story was originally published September 10, 2019 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Former Florida Gators, Oakland Raiders linebacker Neiron Ball dead at 27."
