http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/sp...-damage-from-time-in-national-football-league
Autopsy: Junior Seau's brain showed no apparent sign of damage from time in National Football League
(CNN) - The brain of former National Football League star Junior Seau showed no apparent signs of damage from Seau's years in professional football, according to an autopsy report released Monday.
Seau's death on May 2 in his Oceanside, California, home was classified as a suicide the next day by the San Diego County medical examiner.
The autopsy results released Monday showed Seau shot himself in the chest with a hollow-point bullet from a .357-caliber revolver. The bullet hit Seau's heart, spleen and left lung.
He had used zolpidem, a sleep aid sold under the brand name Ambien among others, and naproxen, a pain reliever sold under the brand name Aleve among others, but there were no signs of alcohol, "common drugs of abuse," or other medications, according to the report by
deputy medical examiner Craig Nelson.
Seau's suicide came on the heels of the suicides of other former NFL stars, including former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson just over a year earlier.
Duerson shot himself in the chest, which kept his brain intact for examination for a debilitating brain injury called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE.
Duerson was found to have dense clusters of tau protein permeating his brain and spinal cord. Tau is released by neurons when the brain is rocked inside the skull and, when unleashed, tends to lodge in parts of the brain responsible for memory, judgment and mood.
CTE has been found in the brains of 14 of 15 former NFL players studied at Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. Their cases share a common thread -- repeated concussions, sub-concussive blows to the head, or both.
