*The widow of former NFL receiver Vincent Jackson is speaking out about his Stage 2 CTE diagnosis following his death in February.
Jackson was found dead on Feb. 15 at the Homewood Suites in Brandon, Florida, five days after his family had reported him missing. He was 38.
The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner said that the former NFL wide receiver died from chronic alcohol use, SI reports. The manner of his death was “natural.” The report comes days after the Concussion Legacy Foundation confirmed that Jackson was diagnosed with stage II chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the progressive brain disease associated with repeated head trauma.
“Vincent dedicated so much of his life to helping others,” said Lindsey Jackson, Jackson’s widow and mother of his four children. “Even in his passing, I know he would want to continue that same legacy.”
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Vincent played football for 23 years. After his death, his family donated Jackson’s brain for study.
“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,” Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathology for the VA Boston Healthcare System, said.
“That his brain showed stage 2 CTE should no longer surprise us; these results have become commonplace,” the doctor added. “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.”
Vincent was exhibiting CTE symptoms after his final season in the NFL, according to his wife.
“His whole plan in the N.F.L. was to set himself up to not have these struggles,” Lindsey said in an interview with The NY Times. “He had done everything to set up a graceful retirement from football, she said, adding, “It’s not the ending he wanted.”
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