VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Former NFL player Sam Beal has been missing for seven months, according to federal authorities.
Beal, who played for the New York Giants, was last seen near Virginia Beach in Virginia on July 12, 2025. He was 28 years old at the time he was reported missing but would now be 29.
According to details provided by the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which is a federal system for tracking people who have disappeared in the U.S., Beal’s girlfriend was the last person to see him.
Beal’s girlfriend reported that he borrowed her car and was supposed to head to work. Instead, she got a call from him a day later, with Beal reportedly saying that he was in Virginia Beach, but was headed home.
“Samuel has not been heard from or seen since the phone call,” the NMUPS alert for him said.
Federal officials said they don’t believe he brought anything with him to Virginia Beach other than the clothes he was wearing, some extra shoes and a wallet containing his credit card and driver’s license.
When the vehicle was recovered in Virginia Beach by one of the girlfriend’s family members, officials say, the family member found Beal’s shoes and socks on the floor of the car along with some sand.
Virginia Beach is an oceanfront city in Virginia just north of the North Carolina border. It’s unclear how far Beal drove to get to Virginia Beach, or how far it was from his work.
Beal’s sister, Essence Zhane, shared a post on Facebook on Jan. 12 that included additional details about the case, urging anybody with info about the NFL player’s disappearance to come forward.
In her post, Zhane included photos of a paid parking ticket for a beachfront lot in Virginia Beach with a timestamp from just before 6 p.m. on July 13.
“Tomorrow makes it 7 months since we’ve last heard from or seen my brother,” she wrote on Facebook. “We’ve done everything we could on our end to piece things together and at this point we’re in desperate need of support on all ends.”
Beal was selected by the New York Giants in the third round of the 2018 supplemental draft, and appeared in six games as a cornerback for the team.
His career with the NFL was cut short in the 2020 season when he opted out of playing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to court documents, Beal was arrested in July 2020 during a traffic stop in Ohio, where he was charged with improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, carrying a concealed weapon, and possession of marijuana. He was indicted a month later on the two weapons charges and initially entered a plea of not guilty. Beal eventually changed his plea to guilty in June 2021 and was placed on probation for a year.
Prior to his career with the NFL, Beal played three seasons with the Western Michigan University Broncos, where he was studying sports medicine, according to the school.
Anybody with information about Samuel Beal’s whereabouts is being asked to call the Kentwood Police Department at 616-698-6580 or the Virginia Beach Police Department at 757-385-4141.