Junior Seau was a legend of the game. Played twenty years at Linebacker, mostly for the Chargers but also finished his career with the Dolphins and Patritos. Seau made first or second team all-pro in half his years in the NFL and also made the pro bowl twelve times. He was a first ballot Hall of Famer in the NFL and was enshrined in 2015 but unfortunately he committed suicide three years earlier due to the effects of CTE from his twenty great years of playing football in the NFL.
In his three years after football he had memory loss and depression. After having trouble with living with his condition and having a lack of treatment from doctors on his disease he ultimately decided to end his life. He died at the young age of 43. In the aftermath of his death his family had the decision to allow top scientists to study their his brain tissue right after his death. In a blinded study, doctors at the National Institute of Health and other agencies discovered in Seau’s brain signs of CTE, a progressive brain disease linked to head trauma. This finding has lead to major advances in the study of CTE.
Over the past few years it seems that his story has had the most effect current and future player’s decisions to leave the game at a young age compared to the numerous other stories told by former NFL players. It is also possible that this story has lead to people to stop playing football and not pursue their dream of playing in the NFL because of the effects it had on Seau. Gina Seau said after his death that “It’s important that we take steps to help these players. We certainly don’t want to see anything like this happen again to any of our athletes.”
She said the family was told that Seau’s disease resulted from “a lot of head-to-head collisions over the course of 20 years of playing in the NFL. And that it gradually, you know, developed the deterioration of his brain and his ability to think logically.”
Today the Junior Seau Foundation still helps underprivileged kids in San Diego even after his death. Junior Seau will be remembered as a great player but also a great person who has left his mark in San Diego as well as the game of football itself.
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