Researchers Have Determined Dallas Cowboys Star Marshawn Kneeland Had Stage 1 CTE When He Died At Age 24

Researchers have determined that Dallas Cowboys star Marshawn Kneeland had CTE when he died at age 24 due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Marshawn Kneeland passed away last fall just days after the Cowboys played a game on Monday Night Football – a game in which he scored his first NFL touchdown. The second-round pick out of Western Michigan shot himself near the team’s facility in Frisco after evading police on Nov. 6 following an attempted welfare check and traffic stop.

According to an announcement from the Concussion and CTE Foundation on Tuesday, researchers at the Boston University CTE Center diagnosed Kneeland with stage 1 (of 4) chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

“Unfortunately, I was not surprised to find CTE in the brain of Mr. Kneeland, because we have found this progressive brain disease in nearly half of the athletes we’ve studied who have died before the age of 30,” said Dr. Ann McKee, director of the Boston University CTE Center and chief of neuropathology for the VA Boston Healthcare System.

“Thanks to the generosity of our brain donor families, we now better understand the earliest stages of CTE, and it is bringing us closer than ever to diagnosing it during life. My team and I are fully dedicated to finding effective treatments and a cure for CTE.”

The announcement also noted that Marshawn Kneeland began playing tackle football at age 7. ESPN also reported that in addition to the requested welfare check on the night that he died, police also performed two welfare checks on Kneeland while he attended Western Michigan.

The researchers released the findings to help inform others involved in contact sports

“Mr. Kneeland played in the modern era of concussion protocols and better helmets, and yet he still developed CTE,” said Dr. Chris Nowinski, Concussion & CTE Foundation CEO. “We have no reason to believe the current generation is at a lower risk of CTE than previous generations. Concussion protocols do not prevent CTE, because CTE is caused by repeated head impacts, not just concussions. If we want to reduce CTE risk, we must implement CTE prevention protocols and aggressively reduce the number and strength of head impacts at every level of the game.”

Kneeland’s family, including his girlfriend Catalina Mancera, who gave birth to Marshawn’s son on June 11, added that they shared this information “to help people understand what NFL and other high contact sport athletes might be struggling with.”