Former Bucs star Mike Williams died of bacterial sepsis, records show
Former pro football star Mike Williams died from a rare variety of bacterial sepsis and related complications, days after he was removed from life support after sustaining injuries from an August workplace accident, authorities confirmed Thursday.
Williams died Sept. 12 in hospice care at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, around the corner from the stadium where he once dazzled crowds as a receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was 36.
His death was caused by “Bacterial Sepsis with Cerebral Abscesses and Necrotizing Lobar Pneumonia due to multiple Dental Caries and retained tooth roots,” according to an initial case summary report from the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Department, reviewed by the Tampa Bay Times.
This is the only instance of this specific cause of death on the county records, which date back to the mid-1980s, a department spokesperson said.
Arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease — the narrowing or hardening of the arteries — is listed as a contributing factor.
The announcement is the latest chapter in a painful series of events that marked Williams’ final weeks, including concerns from friends and family that Williams was brought unprescribed drugs by visitors during his hospital stay, complicating his recovery.
The Tampa Police Department had opened an investigation into the circumstances of Williams’ death. It is now closed, a police spokesperson confirmed to the Times on Thursday.
Williams’ full autopsy and toxicology results remain pending. The initial case summary details that Williams’ next of kin described him as consuming kratom, a green psychoactive powder from the leaves of a Southeast Asian tree, “daily.”
No indication of foul play is included in Medical Examiner records. Williams’ manner of death is listed as “natural.”
Bacterial sepsis of the dental variety is a preventable condition, and therefore not a common complication in adults, Cesar Augusto Migliorati, a professor at the University of Florida College of Dentistry, told the Times.
“Poor oral health, decay and oral infection can cause infections elsewhere in the body, which seems to be the explanation for the patient in this case,” Migliorati wrote in an email.
“Oral health affects overall, systemic health,” he continued, “and issues that aren’t taken care of in our teeth, gums, roots can lead to problems in other parts of the body and other organs.”
A fourth-round pick out of Syracuse in 2010, Williams burst onto the Tampa Bay scene with 65 receptions and 964 receiving yards as a rookie, leading the team with 11 touchdowns.
After four seasons with the Bucs, he was traded to his hometown Buffalo Bills. He finished his NFL career spending part of 2016 with the Chiefs in the offseason.
He landed in the hospital in August following a head injury he sustained while working for Brandon-based Exodus Electric Corp., the Times previously reported.
On Sept. 1, he went into cardiac arrest, records show.
Days later, a Spectrum TV station in his hometown of Buffalo erroneously reported Williams had died. The news was picked up by media outlets nationwide, including the Times.
Tierney Lyle, the mother of his daughter, awoke to these reports, devastated and then perplexed when she learned he was still on life support. She found him in a room on the hospital’s third floor, connected to a web of tubes that kept breathing for him.
She said she saw him slightly stir when he heard his daughter Mya’s voice, blinking and crying but unable to move.
On Sept. 7, he was admitted into hospice. He continued breathing on his own for five days before he died.
