Junior seau why chest

Who is Junior Seau? He spent most of his career with the San Diego Chargers, who made it to the Super Bowl in largely thanks to him. Eerily, Seau is the eighth member of that '94 Chargers team to die at a young age. Seau notched 1, tackles, And investigators suspect suicide? Although no suicide note was found, police believe the gunshot wound to Seau's chest was self-inflicted, and suspect no foul play.

His girlfriend discovered his body when she returned from the gym. The investigation into his death is expected to extend into next week.

Could the suicide be linked to head trauma? In February , Duerson shot himself in the chest, leaving a note saying he wanted his brain donated to the study of football head injuries. Duerson became the banner case for what doctors believe is a link between repeated blows to the head and depression-induced suicide.

Of course, we don't know if Seau's suicide was spurred by football injuries, says neurosurgeon Julian Bailes. Did head trauma play role in Seau death?

Story highlights Popular athlete's death classified as a suicide Pastor and family friend says Seau suffered many concussions Seau texted his ex-wife and children "I love you" before his death, pastor says His death is being investigated as a suicide, medical examiner says. The San Diego County medical examiner's office Thursday classified the death of former NFL linebacker Junior Seau as a suicide, but the finding will probably do little to answer questions swirling since he was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

Toxicology results and the narrative that could reveal contributing factors in the death could take weeks or longer to complete, said Sarah Gordon of the medical examiner's office. Since news broke that Seau was found Wednesday in his Oceanside, California, home with a gunshot wound to the chest, there has been speculation about whether repeated hits to his head over his year pro career could be a contributing factor.

There is no evidence Seau suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy CTE , a degenerative disease brought on by multiple concussions, though friends and family have stepped forward to say the legendary linebacker suffered a number of hits to the head during his career. As a linebacker, he played "the most havoc-ridden position on the team. He suffered many concussions, so there is a strong sense that it played a role," said Shawn Mitchell, a pastor and Seau family friend.

Mitchell, who stood next to Seau's grief-stricken mother as she faced a sea of cameras to discuss her son's death, said the family had received calls from researchers asking to study his brain.

Wire: Seau was an inspiration in the NFL Tiki Barber on Junior Seau's death Or you can try to go it alone. You can put on a brave face for everyone in your life and never let anyone know about the disease that has begun to eat your soul.

You can try to fight it off—you have to try to fight it off, if not for yourself but for the people around you—but it's a cancer. It will consume you. The thoughts of wishing you hadn't woken up can quickly turn into thoughts about how you would end your life. What would be the least painful way? What would be the most painful way? Are these normal things to think about? Do other people sit around and wonder these things? If you ask someone, will he share his own thoughts or want to put you in the nuthouse?

For many people with depression or depression-like symptoms, there is help. If you realize it soon enough, there are ways to fight those thoughts and work through your issues. For some people who struggle with diseases like depression or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which contributed to former NFL standout Dave Duerson taking his own life last year , it becomes impossible to see a way out.

There is no help for someone whose brain stops realizing there is something wrong. Your brain can't seek a solution if it doesn't think there is a problem. Conversely, your brain can become so filled with problems, you can't find any of the solutions. Duerson, like Seau apparently did, shot himself in the chest.

Auwae knew he was referred to by some of Seau's friends as a hanger-on, but in reality, he says, he wanted nothing more than to be Seau's buddy. That was also the case with the many women Seau had relationships with after divorcing his wife in One of his more serious girlfriends was Mary Nolan, whom he met in when she was only According to Auwae and others, it was Nolan who was by Junior's side most often during his ups and downs in Vegas.

But less than two months before Seau's impulsive gambling trip with Auwae, that relationship came to a traumatic end and may have been the first major clue that Seau's mental state was deteriorating. Early on the morning of Oct. Seau claimed that he never put a hand on Nolan, who immediately left Oceanside without filing a complaint.

After posting bail, Junior ran his car off a cliff in what many of his friends now are convinced was a first suicide attempt, though Seau always insisted he simply fell asleep at the wheel and the police agreed. His ex-wife Gina and their three children, Sydney, Jake and Hunter, and Junior's oldest son, Tyler, picked Seau up from the hospital and brought him to their house for a few days to heal.

When he had trouble sleeping and Gina didn't have Ambien, Junior called Auwae, who says he came to pick up his friend and drive him home. The media attention surrounding the arrest and crash was enormous, and Auwae, who had left Hawaii after hearing the news, says he stayed with Junior inside his home for several weeks, ordering in food and watching football. Seau, bandaged and bruised, refused to discuss the cause or reason for the crash, yet Auwae didn't push.

He was accustomed to comforting injured servicemen through his work with Wounded Warriors. Players around the NFL confirm that Junior was a heavy drinker, but Auwae says it was about that time Seau's drinking worsened and he was taking Ambien along with it to sleep. Auwae was as well. His own marriage was struggling and he, too, was in a raw emotional state. Initially, Auwae says, he was swept up in what appeared to be Seau's zeal for life, the jetsetting, the drinking, the gambling and the women.

But running with Seau put a growing strain on Auwae's relationship with his wife and their three children. By September , he even contemplated suicide; Junior convinced him otherwise.

If Seau had suicidal thoughts, he never expressed them. Meanwhile, Auwae and others say that they noticed his memory beginning to fade, unable to remember simple things, like his daughter Sydney's volleyball game, or plans for lunch, to even the most mundane things like the day of the week.

It was almost common for me to see that. But I'm not thinking that way. Nobody's thinking that way. Post-retirement therapy is often advised for professional athletes to cope with the loss of such an intense and integral part of their lives.

But Seau never reached out for help, just like he always chose to play through pain. Following retirement, he hosted a reality sports series on Versus that was canceled after just one season, and he failed to secure an NFL broadcasting job even at the regional level.

Instead, he watched his former peers on TV, still part of the game he gravely missed. Hoffman, a year-old professional fundraiser and the trustee of Seau's estate, discussed Seau in an Outside the Lines interview for a different story.

She said that Junior always believed he had to take care of the people around him. His family was massive and continually would go to his restaurant, Seau's, expecting to eat and drink for free. I would notice some of the expenses from restaurants and I'd say, 'Oh my God, Junior.

How could you have spent this much money? Auwae also says he watched Junior spending more and more money on dinner and drinks -- which was typical for Seau, who always wanted to be in charge -- but paying with different credit cards. Yet even a week and a half before Seau died, there was nothing to indicate, according to Auwae and other friends, that Junior was thinking about ending his life.

Auwae and Junior had driven to a charity golf tournament in Fontana, Calif. He had a trip to Hawaii tentatively scheduled with his kids. Mother's Day was coming up.

Junior's daughter, Sydney, had just been admitted to USC, his alma mater, where Seau had recently played his ukulele at the spring game. He also had recently become a grandfather, when his thenyear-old son Tyler and Tyler's girlfriend had a daughter.

Former teammate Mark Walczak was coming to stay the last weekend of April with Junior to celebrate Walczak's 50th birthday. The two men had been roommates when Junior moved to San Diego for his rookie year in Walczak told Outside the Lines that Junior seemed in good spirits at the thought of a weekend with old friends, and they spent Friday night, April 27, , with Chargers team doctor David Chao and a few friends in Del Mar, about 20 miles from Oceanside.

When they returned to Junior's house, there was an electrical outage in the neighborhood. They lit candles and talked long into the night. Auwae joined Junior and Walczak and they spent much of the next day on Seau's porch overlooking the ocean, playing music and grilling barbecue. It was then that Auwae said he found an envelope with a letter inside by the kitchen sink that had "Do not read" written on it. Then he grabs the paper and says, 'Have a seat.

Inside the envelope was a letter with the lyrics to "Who I Ain't," co-written by his friend Jamie Paulin, a musician in Nashville, Tenn.

Junior had learned it on the ukulele. The country song is about a man attempting to reconcile his sinning ways and his faith. Auwae thinks now that the letter might have been an attempt at a suicide note, but at the time thought nothing of it. By then, Auwae says he was fully aware that Seau's financial issues were far worse than they'd been on that December night in Vegas.

Junior would likely have to close the doors on his restaurant, Seau's, because he couldn't pay for the necessary upgrades or the lease. And that meant laying off hundreds of employees, including his own son Tyler, who worked there.