Hardrick’s dream of arriving in the NFL ended tragically on Tuesday night, May 6, when the drunk driver allegedly crashed into eight vehicles.
Hardrick, a defensive back at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, was killed while driving to Adamsville, Alabama. The coroner said he was pronounced dead at the scene after a car left the road and flipped several times.
According to KPLC, John McAdams was charged with murder and left the scene of the accident and DUI in a fatal crash.
Sober tests are said to have shown that the McAdams have a blood alcohol content of 0.09%, exceeding the legal drinking limit.
“I still don’t believe it,” Hadrick’s father Ervin Stone told KPLC. “I was just a dream then and I needed to wake up.”
Stone added: “Why William? William is a kid who did everything right… He ran into all these obstacles() beat all these obstacles just to encounter this.
His father said the 22-year-old was “happy” and “excited” about “this season and his grades and college preparations for graduation.”
A former teammate tragically revealed that he had been sending messages to Hadrick when he died.
“He was one of the funniest guys I’ve ever seen,” said Decarlos Nicholson. Nicholson took a photo of them together at Mississippi State.
Austin Peay’s football coach Jeff Faris was described in a statement as “a outstanding young man.”
“Our team was sad about his losses…he made everyone around him better and had a real impact on and off the field. We cheer up in prayer as we join them in the tragic loss. ”
