The family of former NFL wide receiver Vincent Jackson said Thursday he was battling stage 2 chronic traumatic encephalopathy when he was found dead in a Florida hotel room earlier this year.
Researchers at Boston University’s CTE Center posthumously diagnosed Jackson, 38, after his family donated his brain to be analyzed following the shock discovery of the three-time Pro Bowler’s body in a hotel room in Brandon on Feb. 15.
“Vincent dedicated so much of his life to helping others,” his widow, Lindsey Jackson, said in a statement. “Even in his passing, I know he would want to continue that same legacy.”
Jackson said she hoped to see advancements in CTE research following the revelation that came just days after the same researchers announced another former NFL player, Phillip Adams, who killed six people before taking his own life in April, also had stage 2 CTE.
“There is still a lot to be understood about CTE, and education is the key to prevention,” Jackson’s statement continued. “The conversation around this topic needs to be more prevalent, and our family hopes that others will feel comfortable and supported when talking about CTE moving forward.”
Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist who examined both players’ brains, said the diagnoses should not come as a surprise.
“These results have become commonplace,” McKee said in a statement. “What is surprising is that so many football players have died with CTE and so little is being done to make football, at all levels, safer by limiting the number of repetitive subconcussive hits.”
Jackson’s brain had “mild front lobe atrophy” and a “split in the internal membrane” that may be from playing football, McKee told the New York Times.
Jackson, once known as a “gentle giant,” started changing dramatically in his mid-30s, McKee said.
“He became depressed, with progressive memory loss, problem solving difficulties, paranoia, and eventually extreme social isolation,” she said.
Lindsey Jackson, meanwhile, said her husband started forgetting conversations during his final NFL season in 2016. Two years later, Jackson’s attention span had dropped and he became paranoid, she said.
“When I look back at the different conversations we’ve had, I feel like he probably knew that there was something going on without actually vocalizing it,” Lindsey Jackson told the newspaper from her Tampa home.
CTE, a progressive degenerative brain disease, is caused by repetitive head trauma. A study by Boston University has found that a football player’s odds of developing it increases as much as 30% per each year on the field.
Experts say stage 2 CTE translates to behavioral symptoms like aggression, depression, paranoia, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts. Stage 4, the most severe form, is typically associated with dementia.
The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office is expected to release Jackson’s autopsy report next week, USA Today reported. His cause of death has not been announced and no apparent signs of trauma to his body were found. At the time he was discovered, sheriff officials said there was reason to believe the late NFL star suffered from “chronic alcoholism” and concussions.
Jackson, who began on the gridiron at age 12, had played 23 years of football by the time he retired in 2018 after 12 NFL seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the San Diego Chargers.
More than 300 NFL players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE, according to the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
“I hope current and former NFL players of Mr. Jackson’s generation see this as a wake-up call and get off the sideline in the fight against CTE,” said CLF’s CEO, Chris Nowinski, who noted Jackson had never been diagnosed with a concussion during his playing days.
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