Vincent Jackson’s family donates his brain for CTE study
The late NFL player’s family donated his brain to see if Jackson suffered from CTE.
The untimely passing of Vincent Jackson sent shockwaves throughout the sports world. After the former Tampa Bay Buccaneer was found dead in his apartment earlier this week, Jackson’s family members want answers to their questions about his death.
According to a report from The New York Times published Thursday (Feb. 18), Jackson’s family donated the wide receiver’s brain to researchers at Boston University to see if he really did suffer from the mental defects that stem from CTE, which stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. When asked about why a multimillionaire like Jackson was at the hotel, to begin with, his family said it had something to do with his struggle with the mental condition.
“Vincent being who he was would have wanted to help as many people as possible,” the Jackson family’s rep Allison Gorrell explained. “It’s something his family wanted to do to get answers to some of their questions.”
Jackson was found unresponsive by himself in a hotel room in Brandon, Florida. As police got deeper into their investigation, they discovered that a hotel housekeeper realized that Jackson had been in the same slumped-over position since she first went into his room to clean two days before the police were called. She assumed that the former NFL star was just sleeping until she returned to his room on Feb. 15.
Jackson was apparently living at the Homewood Suites hotel since January. His family became so worried about the former NFL player’s condition so much that they filed a missing person report on him three days before he was found unresponsive. Police located Jackson at the hotel the next day, but they claimed he was fine when they spoke to him.
Clearly, he wasn’t ok. The police report also listed Jackson’s prior history with alcoholism. The Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister claimed that Jackson passed away due to internal damage from his alcoholism. However, his family isn’t buying Chronister’s explanation. The results from the autopsy on the deceased NFL player may take months to complete, but at least his family will find out the true cause of death.