From pro football Hall of Famers to a feared NHL enforcer and a pro wrestler, these high-profile athletes all died way too young. Their causes of death vary, but they all share a link to one debilitating medical condition.
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00:00From pro football Hall of Famers to a feared NHL enforcer and a pro wrestler, these high-profile
00:05athletes all died way too young. Their causes of death vary, but they all share a link to
00:09one debilitating medical condition.
00:12Junior Seau was one of his generation's most dominant defensive players, making the Pro
00:16Bowl 12 times and getting selected to six All-Pro teams. The linebacker spent most of
00:20his 20-year career with the San Diego Chargers, retiring at the age of 40. Sadly, in October
00:252010, Seau was arrested for domestic violence. Just hours later, he drove his Cadillac SUV
00:31off a cliff, with officers finding no evidence that he was under the influence. The would-be
00:35pro football Hall of Famer was declared to have died by suicide on May 2, 2012, at just
00:4043 years old.
00:41Seau's son, Tyler, revealed to Sports Illustrated in 2013 that he wasn't surprised that the
00:46NFL legend was found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Although it was first
00:51discovered in the late 1920s, it was only in the early 21st century when CTE reached
00:56mainstream consciousness as posthumous diagnoses of the disease became commonplace. Its symptoms
01:01include cognitive and behavioral changes, such as short-term memory loss, impaired judgment,
01:06depression, anxiety, aggression, and mood swings, all of which are issues that can lead
01:10to disturbing consequences if left unchecked.
01:12Tyler told Sports Illustrated,
01:13"...I don't think any of us were aware of the side effects that could be going on with
01:17head trauma until he passed away. We didn't know his behavior was from head trauma."
01:21Tyler went on to add that his father dealt with symptoms such as depression, mood swings,
01:24insomnia, and forgetfulness. He explained to the outlet,
01:27"...he emotionally detached himself and would kind of go away for a little bit. And then
01:31the depression and things like that, it started to progressively get worse."
01:35"...I know that he didn't love the end of his life."
01:39Often referred to as the Crippler, pro wrestler Chris Benoit's story is one of triumph and
01:43tragedy. He made it for his lack of traditional size for pro wrestling with technical precision,
01:48and even won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XX in 2004. Three years later,
01:53the unthinkable happened.
01:55On June 25, 2007, the 40-year-old Benoit, his wife Nancy, and their 7-year-old son Daniel
02:01were found dead in their Fayetteville, Georgia home following an apparent murder-suicide.
02:04Initially, it was believed that Benoit's actions were driven by steroid misuse. But in September
02:102007, Sports Legacy Institute researchers found that his brain was so damaged from multiple
02:14concussions that it was akin to that of an 85-year-old.
02:18In December 2009, Dr. Bennett Omalu, at the time serving as co-director of the Brain Injury
02:23Research Institute, told ESPN that Benoit was the first pro wrestler to receive a posthumous
02:28CTE diagnosis. In an interview with ABC's Good Morning America, the wrestler's father,
02:32Michael Benoit, described his son as someone whose behavior was completely out of character.
02:36He said,
02:37First, we needed an understanding, because the person that did this is not the man we
02:44know and love."
02:46In an NHL career that spanned just six seasons, Derrick Bogard established himself as one
02:50of the league's most feared enforcers. He was only 28 years old when he died of a drug
02:55and alcohol overdose on May 13, 2011, and five months later, doctors found that the
03:00former NHL player had CTE.
03:02Family and friends spoke to The New York Times for an in-depth piece on Bogard's life, career,
03:06and untimely death. It pointed out several warning signs that hinted something wasn't
03:10right with Bogard in the last few years before his passing. His former teammate John Scott
03:14told the outlet,
03:15His demeanor, his personality, it just left him.
03:18The outlet also noted that Bogard, once easygoing off the ice, had become forgetful and impulsive,
03:23with a tendency to make large and unnecessary purchases. Bogard also dealt with erratic
03:27mood swings toward the end of his life.
03:29His father, Len, talked about how Derrick, then suffering from persistent headaches,
03:33was rather emotional when they met in New York early in 2011. He told the outlet,
03:38I had to hold him. It was like when he was younger, when he was a little kid growing
03:41up. It just sobbed away uncontrollably.
03:45Well before CTE became widely known, Mike Webster became the first NFL player officially
03:49diagnosed with the condition. A Super Bowl-winning center who spent the bulk of his 17-year professional
03:54career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Webster was one of the finest defensive linemen of
03:58his era, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997. Unfortunately, that
04:03year it was also reported that the Steelers' icon was unhoused and unemployed, and had
04:07been dealing with depression in the years following his retirement. Webster died of
04:10a heart attack at the age of 50 on September 24, 2002. His death changed sports history
04:16because of what Dr. Omalu discovered while performing an autopsy on the late NFL lineman.
04:21He told PBS' Frontline in a 2013 interview,
04:24I saw changes that shouldn't be in a 50-year-old man's brain, and also changes that shouldn't
04:32be in a brain that look normal.
04:33Indeed, it wasn't just depression and being unhoused that Webster was dealing with after
04:37he retired from the NFL. In her book Concussion, Jean-Marie Laskus wrote that Webster's reaction
04:42to life after football was extreme, as he would exhibit unusual behaviors such as randomly
04:46yelling threats at strangers, forgetting to eat, and relieving himself in the oven.
04:51One of the more tragic facts of the Chicago Bears' history is that many players from the
04:55Super Bowl-winning 1985 team had a hard time acclimating to post-football life. While most
05:00longtime fans might immediately bring up colorful defensive lineman William Refrigerator
05:04Perry's downfall, there's also the sad case of safety Dave Duerson, a four-time Pro Bowler
05:09who played seven of his 11 NFL seasons in Chicago. While he outwardly seemed to live
05:13a productive and happy life after he retired from pro football, there were more than a
05:16few signs of something darker lurking within before his death by suicide at age 50 on February
05:2117, 2011. According to Duerson's ex-wife, Alicia, these signs began to manifest around
05:272005, as he began to lose his critical thinking ability, experience mood swings, and suffer
05:31frequent and intense headaches. In February of that year, the former Bears star resigned
05:36from his alma mater, Notre Dame's Board of Trustees, after he was charged with assault
05:39on his then-wife. By 2007, he had lost his business and was separated from Alicia.
05:44Commenting on Duerson's advanced CTE, Boston University neuropathologist Anne McKee told
05:49The Guardian that the damage he suffered was quite significant for a man of his age. She
05:53added,
05:54"...the degree of degenerative disease at that young age is quite extraordinary."
05:59As a University of Maine football standout in the late 2000s, Jovan Belcher was described
06:04as a soft-spoken individual who participated in various extracurricular activities, including
06:09the male athletes against violence movement. He was a hard-working player who joined the
06:12Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted rookie in 2009 and became a starting linebacker the
06:17very next season. As such, it was particularly shocking when on December 1, 2012, he fatally
06:22shot his girlfriend, Cassandra Perkins, before driving to the Chiefs' home field and taking
06:26his own life in front of his head coach and general manager. Belcher was 25 years old.
06:31You miss him, you know?
06:33Friends and colleagues who spoke to ESPN about the murder-suicide said that Belcher was the
06:36last person they'd expect to commit such a horrific crime. Separate wrongful death lawsuits
06:41filed against the Chiefs by Belcher's mother and lawyers representing his infant daughter
06:45alleged that the linebacker showed changes in mood and behavior, hinting that he might
06:49have been suffering from CTE. This was corroborated by neuropathologist Dr. Peter Kalowski, who,
06:54in a report obtained by ESPN, noted that Belcher's brain had deposits of tau protein, a key feature
07:00of the condition.
07:02Throughout the course of his six NFL seasons, Philip Adams was a journeyman defensive back
07:06who suited up for six different teams and started 11 of the 78 games he played in. He
07:11was six years removed from his last NFL snap on April 7, 2021, when he made the headlines
07:16for the worst possible reason. Adams, then 32 years old, shot and killed six people in
07:20Rock Hill, South Carolina, before taking his own life. Adams, who was sidelined twice with
07:25concussions while playing for the Oakland Raiders, had been dealing with memory problems
07:28and had trouble sleeping, among other issues. Anne McKee told The New York Times that the
07:32defensive back had an unusually severe case of the disease for someone in their early
07:3630s.
07:38During the mid-2000s, University of Hawaii standout Colt Brennan was one of college football's
07:43finest quarterbacks. He set an NCAA record for most touchdown passes thrown in a season
07:48and finished in the top 10 in Heisman Trophy voting in 2006 and 2007. Despite putting up
07:53huge numbers in college, Brennan lasted until the sixth round of the 2008 NFL Draft, where
07:58he was selected by Washington, D.C.'s NFL team. Due to injuries and what would have
08:02been his rookie year, he never took a regular season snap in the NFL and was eventually
08:06cut by Washington.
08:08Brennan's lack of pro football success was also caused by a traumatic brain injury he
08:11incurred in a 2010 car accident. It also didn't help that he racked up an arrest record and
08:16developed issues with alcohol and drug misuse. Speaking to ESPN, Colt's father, Terry, said
08:21that the accident might have played a part in the quarterback's myriad personal issues.
08:25He said,
08:26"...it seemed to have an effect on him to where he just found himself going from one
08:29bad spot to another bad spot."
08:31Brennan was only 37 years old when he died of a drug overdose on May 11, 2021. Nine months
08:36later, researchers said that the former Hawaii Signal Caller did indeed have CTE in some
08:40form, though it was difficult to determine its severity due to the nature of his death.
08:46BMX rider Dave Mirra was a household name for extreme sports fans in the 1990s and 2000s.
08:52One of the most naturally talented bike riders ever to touch a bike in the history of two
08:56wheels.
08:57He also incurred a number of scary injuries during his career, including his share of
09:00concussions. Mirra's loved ones began to notice changes in the BMX icon's behavior following
09:05his retirement from the sport. He became forgetful and unusually emotional, and would even burst
09:10into tears during everyday conversations.
09:13After meeting with friends at a restaurant in his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina
09:16on the morning of February 4, 2016, the 41-year-old Mirra drove home and died by suicide. In May
09:22of that year, doctors confirmed that he had CTE, making him the first action sports athlete
09:26diagnosed with the disease.
09:28In an interview with ESPN the magazine, Mirra's widow, Lauren, went into detail about the
09:32changes she observed in her husband in the final year of his life. She told the outlet,
09:36"'He was lost. I looked straight through him on a few occasions, and I was like, where
09:40are you? Where are you? What is wrong?'
09:43There isn't much that hasn't been said about former New England Patriots tight end Aaron
09:47Hernandez, who died by suicide while serving prison time for the 2013 murder of his friend
09:52Odin Lloyd. He was only 27 years old at the time of his death on April 19, 2017, and had
09:57an extensive criminal record dating back to his time playing for the University of Florida
10:01Gators.
10:03Hernandez was also found to have the worst case of CTE ever recorded for a person in
10:06his age range, as confirmed by Anne McKee. McKee told the Washington Post,
10:10"'In this age group, he's clearly at the severe end of the spectrum. There is a concern
10:14that we're seeing accelerated disease in young athletes. Whether or not that's because they're
10:18playing more aggressively or if they're starting at younger ages, we don't know.'"
10:22She also explained that Hernandez had a genetic marker that might have played a role in the
10:25severity of his CTE and how easily he developed the condition.
10:30If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
10:34Prevention Lifeline at 988-833-8255 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK.