“Vincent Jackson was a brilliant, disciplined, gentle giant whose life began to change in his mid-30s. He became depressed, with progressive memory loss, problem solving difficulties, paranoia, and eventually extreme social isolation,” said Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathology for the VA Boston Healthcare System and director of the BU CTE Center and VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank.
“That his brain showed stage 2 CTE should no longer surprise us; these results have become commonplace. What is surprising is that so many football players have died with CTE and so little is being done to make football, at all levels, safer by limiting the number of repetitive subconcussive hits,” she said.
“CTE will not disappear by ignoring it, we need to actively address the risk that football poses to brain health and to support the players who are struggling,” McKee said.
Following a standout collegiate career at the University of Northern Colorado, Jackson was drafted by the San Diego Chargers, now based in Los Angeles, in 2005 and played seven seasons there before moving on to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he played the last five seasons of his 12-year career.