Report: Doug Martin Died In Police Custody
October 20th, 2025
Details emerge.
The mystery cloaking the sad news yesterday of the death of former Bucs running back Doug Martin has taken a disturbing turn on a couple of levels.
It seems Martin died in police custody after police responded to an early-morning burglary call.
KTVU-TV in Oakland details police responded to reports of a break-in at an Oakland home at 4:15 a.m. on Saturday. At the same time, authorities received reports of a person having a medical emergency at the same address.
When authorities arrived, Martin, per the KTVU report, resisted officers. Upon police taking Martin into custody, reports say he became unresponsive and was then transported by paramedics to a hospital, where he later passed.
Exactly why Martin was detained and what type of medical emergency he suffered are unknown.
There are a lot of dots to connect here with many dots unknown. What is known is that Martin is dead. And the facts known sure don’t look good.
October 20th, 2025 at 9:14 am
Yep yep I knew it was not a good thing that a report of his passing came from TMZ
October 20th, 2025 at 9:23 am
Absolutely awful news, my condolences to his family. RIP Doug.
October 20th, 2025 at 9:26 am
Nothing fishy about that.
October 20th, 2025 at 9:31 am
Exactly why Martin was detained and what type of medical emergency he suffered are unknown.
Wow…. does breaking and entry in the early morning hours not merit detaining someone?
October 20th, 2025 at 9:39 am
Sad. Way too young.
October 20th, 2025 at 9:48 am
@BakerFan
WE DO NOT KNOW THE FULL DETAILS OF WHAT HAPPENED YET! Please chill before jumping to conclusions.
October 20th, 2025 at 9:50 am
No matter what the circumstances…very tragic
October 20th, 2025 at 9:54 am
Narcan being administered immediately saves lives.
October 20th, 2025 at 9:55 am
Sad, sad news.
Mike Williams and Doug Martin both were very talented, and both squandered their NFL opportunities. Somebody better be checking on Josh Freeman.
October 20th, 2025 at 9:56 am
Sounds like a high likelihood that drugs were involved in one way or another.
Very sad that such a young man’s life would end this way.
October 20th, 2025 at 9:59 am
REST IN PEACE DUGGERNAUT
October 20th, 2025 at 10:06 am
Very sad to hear, Doug was a great running back. I’m praying for Doug’s family!!
October 20th, 2025 at 10:08 am
Unfortunate, I would think if he slipped into unconsciousness then he would of been treated with narcan. hmmm still so much drama even in death for this young man.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:09 am
Prayers to Doug’s family and everyone involved.
Gosh, life is so precious
October 20th, 2025 at 10:09 am
If he died at the hospital he wasn’t really in police custody. His family will spin this in an attempt to blame police for a lawsuit and minimize whatever Martin did.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:16 am
The NFLPA fails their players.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:19 am
BakerFan_No_2 Says:
October 20th, 2025 at 9:48 am
@BakerFan
WE DO NOT KNOW THE FULL DETAILS OF WHAT HAPPENED YET! Please chill before jumping to conclusions.
We do know that he was in someone house and that is why the police were called in the first place. So detaining someone for being somewhere he shouldn’t be is not out of the question. Joe wrote….Exactly why Martin was detained
pretty dang obvious why he was detained, all the rest is still fog.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:31 am
Bakerfan
Being detained shouldn’t required Tony to end up dead.
“Upon police taking Martin into custody, he became unresponsive“
October 20th, 2025 at 10:41 am
Now its starting to make sense why the family was being so secretive. I hope they can find some peace in all this.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:43 am
Drugs are bad mmmmmmkaaaayyy!!!! Sad that our three offensive weapons in the early 10’s seem to have met their demise due to Substance abuse.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:48 am
Clear as mud and ripe for guessing
But… in police custody means arrest or detention
Unless it’s written by sloppy journalism ,which is rampant these days without editors running the shop on both TV and written media these days.
Sad ending regardless of the circumstances
The drug and alcohol testing will help with understanding
October 20th, 2025 at 10:50 am
Dewey a person can absolutely be in police custody and in a hospital
October 20th, 2025 at 10:58 am
Truly a shame. Doug was a good person who did a lot of good things in the community when he played for the Bucs. He should be remembered for that and his hard nose play on the field.
RIP Doug Martin.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:58 am
sad.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:59 am
SB I know that but the media says police custody to add juice to the story. Click bait. Just like when a 19 year old commits a crime it is stated that a teenager did it even though it’s a adult.
October 20th, 2025 at 11:11 am
Sigh…. If true, this is just so sad. Police custody indicates some sort of crime. It sounds like Martin collapsed and died. That almost always points to dope. Thoughts of peace and condolences to his family and friends. RIP, DM.
October 20th, 2025 at 11:15 am
Jmarkbuc Says:
October 20th, 2025 at 10:31 am
Bakerfan
Being detained shouldn’t required Tony to end up dead.
“Upon police taking Martin into custody, he became unresponsive“
Reading comprehension counts….. Again for the final time. Joe questioned why he was detained. My statement is a breaking and entry at 4am in the morning is more than enough to be detained….. From then on out everything is foggy and I won’t go there until it is released.
If someone broke into your house at 4am and the police came and just let the guy go what would you think? Of course they should detain him
October 20th, 2025 at 11:29 am
i have an authentic reebok red home version jersey of doug’s in a size 56…wore it to the game back when he was playing and waited outside where the players funnel out…somehow he had a sharpie in his hand – probably from someone seeking an autograph…
i said what’s up to doug, he was totally chill and since he was holding the sharpie i asked him to sign off on my jersey…he scribbled the shoulder, was all smiles, and was on his way…
rip muscle hamster
October 20th, 2025 at 11:34 am
rip DM22
6-1!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
October 20th, 2025 at 11:38 am
I remember when he was drafted I messaged him
On twitter and he replied thought that was really
Cool
October 20th, 2025 at 11:39 am
There are so few details and what is out there is still murky. Would like to know exactly what he was detained for. The implication is that Martin may have been the culprit. ***May have been.*** Don’t even know if he was a victim of foul play or if that was his house that someone else broke into. Or if this was a domestic issue gone haywire. That’s why Joe wants to know why Martin was detained. Don’t think that is unfair to ask.
(Granted, being detained at 4:15 a.m. at the site of a home invasion is not a good look.)
October 20th, 2025 at 11:52 am
This means they had two officers at the hospital with him, absent his physical distress, He would probably be down at the booking area in local police station
October 20th, 2025 at 11:55 am
@ Aqualung – They can’t be their ‘full-time’ babysitter, man! There is a thing called personal responsibility. And, who knows… Maybe, they have tried to help him, IF he had even reached-out before!? I’m sure at least ‘someone’ has. These things don’t happen in a vacuum. They’ve usually had opportunity after opportunity, given from LOTS of different individuals. You can’t help someone, if and when, they don’t want to help themselves. So, whatever happened, there is ONLY ONE person to blame. That is UNLESS, ‘he’ was the victim and it was actually, HIS home that was being broken into… But, that seems HIGHLY doubtful though, at this point. Seems-like, I’ve heard of him having several ‘issues’ in the past.
October 20th, 2025 at 12:02 pm
Damn. Sound like, but we are not sure, drugs may have been involved. But only God can judge. RIP Doug Martin.
October 20th, 2025 at 12:04 pm
Joe………You once dubbed him The Molly Hamster.
Drugs surely had something to do with it.
October 20th, 2025 at 12:04 pm
With the police being involved, we will receive much more information on this as opposed to a wellness check that involves a tragedy. Sorry for his family but also sorry for the homeowner that is having to deal with this. I’ve read that he entered a neighbor’s house. I suppose we’ll find out what really happened at some point. Regardless, it’s tragic that his life ended in the early morning hours under a cloud of suspicious behavior. Truly a sad tale with a sad ending. Hug your kids today and if you have someone under the influence in your life, try and be a positive force in their lives. Mourn the losses but fight for the wins.
October 20th, 2025 at 12:09 pm
I’m sorry to hear that he passed away. I hate hearing when former professional athletes lose their way after their careers are over with. I didn’t think it would happen to Doug Martin.
It seems the younger generations of Bucs fans really loved the guy. I can’t help but think of the warning signs that were there when he was with the Bucs, especially when he was suspended in 2016. Steve Duemig broke the story and the Bucs nor Martin ever disputed the story.
October 20th, 2025 at 12:10 pm
They never said anything about who committed what crime(s). I haven’t read any other articles about it (other than just this one), but it says that HE “RESISTED Arrest.” Nothing concrete on why he was going to be arrested in the first place. Which, leads you to ‘believe’ (or assume) that it was HE, who was ‘breaking into’ the home. If true, then why not just state it!? Why not disclose exactly WHY HE was being arrested, in the first place. Sounds like, either an OD or a heart-attack. It’s weird though, since they supposedly, received ANOTHER call requesting “medical attention.” Maybe, they all ‘thought’ that he was ‘faking-it’ in order to avoid arrest… But, it turned-out to be REAL!? Also, “narcan” does not always work… Even, just on some of the fentanyl around, it might take up to 4+ sprays/dosages for it to work. Plus, there are newer drugs that a pretty ‘resistant’ to it.
October 20th, 2025 at 12:11 pm
Homicide unit and Internal Affairs are both investigating… all the officers at the scene have already been placed on administrative leave.
Something shady definitely went down. I assume we’ll know the real story whenever the body cam footage is released.
October 20th, 2025 at 12:24 pm
I got crap for it yesterday, but running away from REALITY is exactly why stuff like this will happen over and over and over. Yes, it’s tragic. No it does not make him evil, but doing drugs is a stupid decision. And it’s bad decisions that lead you to be arrested and/or overdosing. It should be a cautionary tale, and yes more facts will come out – but people want to bury their head in the sand because a they don’t want to besmirch the name of a guy on their most favoritist football team. It’s sad, but this is what happens
October 20th, 2025 at 12:29 pm
Maybe, he ‘broke-in’ looking for HELP, for whatever was ailing him!? Hmmmm…
October 20th, 2025 at 12:42 pm
Maybe, he ‘broke-in’ looking for HELP, for whatever was ailing him!?
Or, maybe he wasn’t breaking in at all? Had an OD and someone there called in a break-in to try to cover for a dude OD’ing at a crack house?
October 20th, 2025 at 12:43 pm
My condolences to his family. It’s heart-wrenching to lose your child. 36 years young. Rest in Peace.
October 20th, 2025 at 12:58 pm
Maybe the Muscle Hamster was lawfully inside the residence and the person being called in that looked like he was burgling was only breaking in to help MH with his medical situation?
October 20th, 2025 at 12:59 pm
…and seriously…condolences to his family. Terrible terrible thing.
October 20th, 2025 at 2:00 pm
I see a lot of people jumping to conclusions here. A medical emergency was reported. That could be anything…from overdose to suicide attempt to a bunch of other things.
Resisting could have meant they insisted he be medically evaluated and he he refused to. The police would have taken him into custody the take him to a mental health facility too.
His death could have been drug related…or it could have been something like a stroke, heart attack or police abuse.
The truth is we do not know.
October 20th, 2025 at 2:19 pm
Of course our local drug addicts are the first to automatically start yelling it was drugs. Thre couldn’t be anything physical involved.
October 20th, 2025 at 2:19 pm
There.
October 20th, 2025 at 3:05 pm
All good points by Jimmy, GenocideD, and BuccaneerBonzai… That was exactly, where I was going with my last comment. It is probably ‘doubtful’ at this point, but still… We don’t know anything 💯 FOR SURE yet, until we know!
October 20th, 2025 at 3:20 pm
We don’t see eye to eye on much, but I agree with you here.
And no Melvin, we are not talking about a wet nurse, foam padded helmets, or assuring that millionaire college kids receive multigenerational money before their 25 bday, just to ride out the rest of their career on IR. Some retrofitting is needed here. When 3 guys ( just what we talking about here) in their 30s from a staff infection, alcoholism, and a 4a crime scene. AND they all 3 have 1 thing in common, it begs for greater resource from a multi-billion dollar sports book facilitator
October 20th, 2025 at 3:58 pm
No idea what happened, but my first thought every time for each of these deaths was the past culture of the “Yungry” Bucs (which Raheem Morris was very much a part of as far as he was going to these parties). All the stupid sheet they were doing on a regular basis.
There’s no doubt in my mind that this cultural influence led to drastic personal issues in these young men’s lives.
I heard from a strip club owner back when Doug Martin was originally injured for the year that everyone in the industry knew about his depression and his addictions. I was told Doug was practically living in the strip clubs always drunk & drugged up.
Can’t say who Doug was as a person, but seemed from the outside looking in that he was a good humble dude when he was drafted.
In Tampa, behind the scenes, he was not like that AT ALL.
My ex used to work at the Hard Rock and she said he kept coming in there and sexually harrassing the girls. Her first impressions when she encountered him (she didn’t know who he was) was his negative energy & evil in his eyes.