BATON ROUGE, La. — Former Texas A&M running back Le’Veon Moss was arrested Monday in his hometown on a charge of cruelty to a juvenile, according to a report from WBRZ News, just weeks after his name resurfaced in SEC circles as part of a discussion about Aggies coach Mike Elko’s win total.
What happened in Baton Rouge
Police say the incident began when Moss’s two-year-old son got hold of a gun the former running back kept under his pillow. The weapon discharged and injured the child. Moss was reportedly asleep at the time.
He rushed the boy to Our Lady of the Lake’s Children’s Hospital, a facility roughly fifteen minutes from the apartment where the shooting happened. The extent of the child’s injuries and where the boy was struck have not been made public. WBRZ reported that the arrest affidavit stated Moss’s negligence caused a child under seventeen to suffer unjustifiable pain.
Moss, 23, grew up in the Baton Rouge area and played his high school ball at Istrouma, a program long known for producing SEC talent.
A career that ended before it started in the NFL
Moss spent four seasons at Texas A&M and became one of the more productive backs in program history, finishing with 321 carries for 1,767 yards and 22 touchdowns across 32 games. His best year came in 2024, when he started nine games, ran for 765 yards and 10 scores, and added 10 catches for 141 yards before a season-ending injury cut his junior campaign short.
That production was enough to earn him All-SEC Second Team honors, and he ranked second in the conference and 17th nationally in yards per carry that season. He capped his college run by being named the team’s Offensive MVP.
Despite that resume, Moss went unselected in the 2026 NFL Draft. He signed an undrafted free agent deal with the Miami Dolphins that included 258,000 dollars in guaranteed money, but a string of injury issues led him to retire from football shortly after signing.
Why his name is back in the conversation
Moss’s college finish has become a talking point again this month as Texas A&M heads into SEC Media Days under Elko, who enters year three in College Station.
A recent breakdown of Elko’s career winning percentage placed him sixth among the conference’s 16 head coaches at 68 percent overall, and 73 percent in SEC play specifically, trailing names like Kalen DeBoer, Kirby Smart and Jon Sumrall but ahead of Texas’s Steve Sarkisian and Oklahoma’s Brent Venables.
Analysts have pointed out that Moss’s 2024 leg injury, suffered after the Aggies opened that season 7-1, likely cost Elko a handful of additional wins and kept his overall win total from climbing even higher in just his first two years on the job.
Texas A&M is coming off its first appearance in the College Football Playoff and saw a program record 10 players drafted this past spring, a sign that the roster Elko and his staff built, with Moss as one of its foundational pieces, is now paying off at the next level even as some of those same players face difficulties away from the field.
No update on the condition of Moss’s son has been released as of Wednesday, and it remains unclear whether additional charges are expected as the investigation continues.
