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Vincent wasfound dead in his hotel roomin Brandon, Florida, on Feb. 15, just days after his family reported him missing.
“By donating his brain to the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, we hope to continue to see advancements in CTE research, enabling physicians to diagnose the disease in the living and ultimately find treatment options in the future,” she added. “There is still a lot to be understood about CTE, and education is the key to prevention. 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.”
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“Vincent Jackson was a brilliant, disciplined, gentle giant whose life began to change in his mid-30s. He became depressed, with progressive memory loss, problem-solving difficulties, paranoia, and eventually extreme social isolation,” McKee said in a statement. “That his brain showed stage 2 CTE should no longer surprise us; these results have become commonplace.”
“We need to actively address the risk that football poses to brain health and to support the players who are struggling,” she said.
On Wednesday, McKee announced that another former NFL player,Phillip Adams, who killed six people before killing himself in April, also had stage 2 CTE.
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“More than 300 NFL players have been diagnosed with CTE,” Chris Nowinski, founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, said in astatement. “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.”
“If a four-time Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee who never had a diagnosed concussion can lose his fight against CTE at just 38,” he said of Vincent, “it can happen to anyone.”
source: people.com
