How Did Taye Diggs’ Billy Die in All American?

The CW’s All American is probably the best sports drama show of the last few years, and its success has recently allowed the network to renew it for a seventh season.

It is full of emotional moments related to both sports and personal dramas of the characters. The death of Billy Baker, a coach who inspired the show’s lead Spencer to continue his career, can be considered the biggest tear-jerker of the whole series.

Billy’s Departure Is the Most Tragic Event of the Show

Back in 2022, in All American Season 5, Taye Diggs’ Billy faces two major challenges. The coach still has an unresolved conflict with Spencer, who joined his football team. Besides, he has to decline an offer from Golden Angeles University due to family issues.

However, the show doesn’t give Billy a chance to solve all these problems, as it kills him off in a very shocking way. The point is in the 11th episode, titled Time, the coach and his squad end up suffering a bus crash.

It is Billy who helps to save others and who sees that one of the young players is still trapped in the bus. He releases him, although falls from the cliff and dies himself.

Later in the series, in the 13th episode, Day Ones, we see a flashback depicting his tragic death, with his last words to the boy he saves being “Tell my family I love them”, and it’s certainly an epic, yet tear-jerking scene.

Why Did Billy Even Have to Die in All American?

It’s quite a fair question that arises here, as the audience would be glad to see how Billy reconciles with Spencer and continues being one of the show’s main engines.

The reason for it is really simple: Taye Diggs wanted to leave All American to seek other movie projects and possibilities, and it seemed that such a heroic death is the only option to conclude Billy’s way in the series.

The showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll himself admitted that this character couldn’t be dismissed any other way.

“To me, there was only ever one exit for Billy if he was leaving, because the character would never leave after fighting so hard for his family,” he said.

You can recall how Billy Baker left the whole world and how emotional his demise was, as All American is now available for streaming on Netflix .

Source: Deadline