JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville community is mourning Chris Payton-Jones, a former Sandalwood High School football standout and professional football player, who was killed in a crash on State Road 24 in Gainesville late Saturday.
Friends, family, former teammates, and coaches shared condolences online as word of Payton-Jones’ death spread early Sunday.
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Rhonda Motley, his former vice principal at Sandalwood High School, said she was stunned when she heard the news.
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“I just couldn’t believe it,” Motley said. “Then I got a call from another parent, who called me crying.”
Motley remembered Payton-Jones as the kind of student every educator hopes for — joyful, respectful, and driven.
“As an educator, you have those students whom you wish that you could clone,” she said. “And that was the type of student and person that Chris was.”
Payton-Jones went on to pursue his football dreams at the professional level, playing for five NFL teams from 2018 to 2021 and then playing in the XFL and UFL.
But Motley said Payton-Jones remained connected to Sandalwood and to the people who supported him.
She said the relationship grew beyond school and became family — including the day he returned with a Tennessee Titans jersey addressed to “Mama Motley.”
“That’s who I was to him,” she said. “You could not ask for a better student.”
Motley said Payton-Jones also spent time giving back, working with students and young athletes when he came back to Jacksonville.
“When he came back to town, he met your students. He worked out with them. He tried to lead them in the right direction,” she said.
She added that he developed other passions off the field, including photography, and said one of the roles he took the most pride in was being a father.
“I think the thing he was most proud of was being a father,” Motley said. “He loved, loved, loved his son.”
Motley said she is now in communication with Sandalwood’s current principal about ways to honor Payton-Jones at the school.