Duerson, 50, was found dead Thursday night in his home in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., after he did not report for his Internet radio show.
His death has been ruled a suicide, but the Miami-Dade police department has yet to make the information public. Foul play was ruled out, in part because no one but Duerson was seen entering his condominium for two days before the shooting.
Chris Nowinski, co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University School of Medicine, said Duerson’s family contacted him to examine Duerson’s brain for abnormalities related to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease found in those who have a history of repetitive brain trauma, including concussions.
Nowinski also said the family provided the appropriate release forms so the brain could be studied, a process that should take between three to six months.
“NFL players are at higher risk for CTE than normal people and probably other athletes as well,” Nowinski said. “Of the 14 former NFL players we’ve completed studies on, 13 of them had the disease.”
