Football-related brain trauma may have led to Waters' suicide

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICES

January 18, 2007

Since former Philadelphia Eagles safety Andre Waters killed himself in November, an explanation for his suicide has remained a mystery.

But after examining portions of Waters' brain, a neuropathologist is claiming that Waters sustained brain damage from playing football that, he says, led to Waters' depression and ultimate death.

The neuropathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu of the University of Pittsburgh and a leading expert in forensic pathology, determined that Waters' brain tissue had degenerated into that of an 85-year-old man with similar characteristics as those of early-stage Alzheimer's victims. Omalu said he believed that the damage was either caused or drastically expedited by successive concussions Waters, 44, sustained playing football.

A hard-hitting Eagles strong safety from 1984-93, Waters was asked in 1994 by the Philadelphia Inquirer to count his career concussions. “I think I lost count at 15,” he was quoted as saying. He later added: “I just wouldn't say anything. I'd sniff some smelling salts, then go back in there.”

The NFL declined to comment on Waters' case specifically. A member of the league's mild traumatic brain injury committee, Dr. Andrew Tucker, said that the NFL was beginning a study of retired players later this year to examine the more general issue of football concussions and subsequent depression.

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