Junior Seau And How CTE Killed Him

Junior Seau and How CTE Killed Him Junior Seau was an elite NFL linebacker who retired in 2009. He played in the NFL from 1990 until 2009 and went to 12 Pro Bowls and was named to the 1990’s All Decade Team. He also was a huge philanthropist in the San Diego area of California as well as being an entrepreneur. He was a great and influential role model for kids and for football players. In 2012, just over three years after he retired, he died from a gunshot wound to the heart. The question is not how he died but why he died. Junior Seau was 43 when he passed away from a gunshot to the heart. It was determined to be self-inflicted. Junior Seau, a hall of fame NFL player, killed himself, but no one knew why he killed himself till months later. The circumstances that led to him killing himself

The only way to diagnose it is posthumously. In the three years prior to his death, Junior Seau was having increased mood swings, falling into depression, forgetfulness, insomnia and emotional detachment. Junior Seau's brain showed definitive signs of CTE. Those signs included the presence of an abnormal protein called "tau”. Tau forms neurofibrillary tangles, effectively strangling brain cells. The doctors also discovered a small region in the left frontal lobe of his brain with evidence of scarring consistent with a small, old, traumatic brain injury. Many former NFL players and boxers have committed suicide in a way that would allow their brain to be researched and studied to be able to find a way to diagnose or prevent CTE. Junior Seau is just the latest of them to do this. There were reports that Junior had texted his family that he loved them hours prior to his passing and he waited till his girlfriend was gone before he killed himself. I believe that Junior Seau committed suicide because of the mental anguish he was going through and could not handle what his life was becoming because of CTE and that he shot himself in the heart so