Kyle Douglas Morrell (October 9, 1963 – November 15, 2020) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). Morrell was born in

Scottsdale, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Winfield Scott , image_skyline = , image_seal = Seal of Scottsdale (Arizona).svg , image_blank_emblem = City of Scottsdale Script Logo.svg , nick ...

and played scholastically at

Viewmont High School Viewmont High School is a public high school located in Bountiful, Utah. The school is a member of the Davis School District. The principal, as of 2021, is Travis Lund. In 2011, VHS was identified by ''Newsweek'' magazine and the ''Washington ...

in Bountiful, Utah. He played collegiately for the

BYU Cougars The BYU Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Brigham Young University (BYU), located in Provo, Utah. BYU fields 21 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the West ...

, where, as a senior, he was a member of their 1984 consensus national champion team. He was also honored his senior year by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

, as a first-team All-American. Morrell was selected by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

in the fourth round of the

1985 NFL draft The 1985 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. The draft was held April 30 and May 1, 1985, at the Omni Park Central Hotel in New York City, New York. The league also hel ...

, but spent the year on the

injured reserve list The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

. He appeared in five games for the Vikings in 1986. Morrell died on November 15, 2020, in Bountiful, from

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(ALS).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrell, Kyle 1963 births 2020 deaths American football defensive backs All-American college football players Players of American football from Scottsdale, Arizona People from Bountiful, Utah Sportspeople from Davis County, Utah Players of American football from Utah BYU Cougars football players Minnesota Vikings players Neurological disease deaths in Utah Deaths from motor neuron disease in the United States