Kyle Mullen

Kyle Felix Mullen was a former captain of the Yale Bulldogs football team who enlisted in the U.S. Navy after college, and died at age 24 on February 4, 2022, following the "Hell Week" portion of Navy SEAL training.

Early life, education, and enlistment Mullen grew up in Manalapan Township, New Jersey, and graduated from Manalapan High School in 2015. He was "a star defensive lineman and tight end" on the high school football team, receiving regional all-star and conference Defensive Player of the Year honors. In his senior year, on defense he made 136 tackles (leading his team), 11 sacks, and four fumble recoveries, while on offense he caught six touchdown passes. He was also a starter on the school's basketball team. His high school football coach, Ed Gurrieri, after his death, praised Mullen's character and said that he was "in the National Honor Society and excelled at academics. His GPA was in the 4.2 to 4.4 range when he graduated. He was All State and led our team to its first state championship." At Yale, he was also a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. The Yale Daily News reported in November 2018 that the football coach had announced in June 2018, before what would have been Mullen's senior year when he would captain the team, that Mullen had withdrawn from Yale for "personal reasons." The college newspaper also reported that a fellow Yale College student had accused Mullen of "sexual penetration without consent." Mullen left Yale before the charges could be adjudicated by the University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct.

Mullen played another season of college football at Monmouth University in 2019, as a postgraduate. While on the Monmouth Hawks football team, he played fourteen games with 26 total tackles. The Asbury Park Press reported that his tackles included 3.5 sacks and that he broke up five passes; pursuing a dream of becoming a SEAL; he held the rank of seaman. In a notebook during training, Mullen wrote: "I'm not going to die, and if I do I'd rather die here." He was declared dead at about 5:42 p.m., at the Sharp Coronado Hospital in San Diego. He was 24 years old. Both a private autopsy and a military autopsy (conducted by the U.S. Army regional medical examiner, dated in May 2022) were performed. saying, "The medical team, the instructors, the lieutenant, the commander had to have known. They had all seen the guy spitting up blood. You sent him to the barracks, sent the medical team home, and you let him die." Manalapan High School, from which Mullen graduated, honored him with a moment of silence.