Junior Seau’s Family to Donate His Brain for Study

Former NFL great Junior Seau's death has been officially ruled a suicide, and now his family has said that they will allow his brain to be studied to see if concussions he sustained lead to brain damage.

San Diego Chargers team chaplain Shawn Mitchell told the Los Angeles Times that Seau's family felt it was important so others may be helped down the road.

The family was considering this almost from the beginning, but they didn't want to make any emotional decisions...And when they came to a joint decision that absolutely this was the best thing, it was a natural occurrence for the Seau family to go forward.

Seau was found on May 2nd in a bedroom of his home with a single gunshot wound to his chest. No suicide note was found at the scene.

Seau's death was reminiscent of former NFL player Dave Duerson, who took his own life in 2011 with a gunshot to his chest. Duerson left a note saying he was going to kill himself that way so his brain could be studied. Researchers at Boston University determined that concussions Duerson suffered while playing led to neurodegenerative disease, which then led to depression.

Article by Eric Gray