Tyler Hilinski, a Washington State University quarterback who killed himself in January, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a traumatic brain injury often related to football, according to an autopsy. The autopsy revealed that Hilinski, who was found dead at the age of 21, had stage 1 CTE, of which depression is a symptom. A doctor told his mother that his brain was “like that of a much older, elderly man.” A study published last year found CTE in 99 percent of the NFL players’ brains it examined.
