Five months after Washington State University quarterback Tyler Hilinski committed suicide in his Pullman apartment, the parents of Tyler revealed their son suffered from a serious case of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
In an interview with the Today Show, Tyler’s parents said they believed football likely played part in their son’s condition.
“The medical examiner said he had the brain of a 65-year-old, which is really hard to take,” said Tyler’s father Mark on the Today Show. “He was the sweetest, most outgoing, giving kid. That was difficult to hear.”
CTE, a degenerative brain disease often caused by head trauma, has been linked to the aggressive nature of football in multiple studies.