Junior Seau, 43, died today which is tragic enough. Reports that it likely was a suicide makes it a double gut punch.
Imagining a gifted, pedal-to-the-metal, 12-time NFL Pro Bowler like Seau, one who gave it all seemingly 100 percent of the time, blowing away half his life with a single pull of the trigger is sadder than sad. It sends a deplorable message. With no note, it also leaves so many questions unanswered.
Why did he do it? How could he do it? Did he actually do it?
With three teenage children – at least one who was home Wednesday – left behind, it's hard to imagine him ending it.
Then again, three recently retired NFL players killed themselves in the last 15 months – two in the last two weeks? Former Falcons' safety Ray Easterling died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 19.
Brain malfunctions due to football head injuries – concussions or chronic traumatic encephalopathy - have been considered as contributors to the tragedies. So has depression. Around and around we swirl and stew and try to make sense of it all.
At least for today, I think we're all just better off doing what longtime sports writer Steve Brand has done: Embrace Seau's life, not his death.
Brand has been covering preps for the San Diego Union-Tribune for the last 38 years and had an inside look at Seau's early days as a standout at
Oceanside (Calif.) High School in the mid-1980s.
Brand, a correspondent for MaxPreps.com, called Seau not only the best defensive player ever to come out of San Diego, but probably the best all-around athlete to ever attend school there. He noted that natives Ted Williams, Bill Walton, Phil Mickelson and even Marcus Allen were not All-CIF first team in two sports like Seau (football and basketball).
"Junior attacked everything with a motor that never quit," Brand said. "In addition to being very strong, fast and agile, he learned very quickly so if you fooled him once it wouldn't happen again.
"Quite simply, on the football field he was unstoppable as a linebacker and strong and fast enough to be a tight end on offense."
Seau was not only a star linebacker at Oceanside but he was the Avocado League offensive MVP as a tight end. He was also one of the San Diego Section's top basketball players and shot putters in track and field.
Brand recalled an All-Star game against the Los Angeles City Section in the summer after he graduated from Oceanside. He went on, of course, to be a two-time All-American at USC and a 10-time All-Pro performer with three NFL teams, primarily with the San Diego Chargers.
Brand's final impressions as a prep were the most memorable.
"He blew over a blocker, destroyed a fullback – the quarterback wisely got out of his way – and then ran down a very good running back from behind," Brand said. "The running back wasn't ever the same after that. Seau had several other monster hits in the game that left the USC people drooling."
Today his fans, and of course family and friends, are left weeping. Brand said Seau was as popular as a prep as he was as a sure-fire future NFL Hall of Famer.
"Junior was always a very likeable person to the media in high school," Brand said. "He had fun and enjoyed life at Oceanside High. Going to USC was a natural at that time and then to play for the Chargers, well, then everyone in San Diego got to enjoy him.
"His death is tragic and shocking. A huge loss for this city because he really was someone people of all ages looked up to. People just stopped and watched the TV report in stunned silence, I'm sure hoping against hope it was a mistake."
New Orleans Saints offensive lineman Eric Olsen idolized him ever since he was a freshman at
Poly Prep Country Day (Brooklyn, N.Y.).
Olsen re-told a story Wednesday on Twitter about when he met Seau at a Jay Fiedler Football camp over the summer. Seau challenged any of the linemen to go 1-on-1 and Olsen's buddies pushed him into the mix. He was suddenly face-to-face with one of the NFL's most menacing and accomplished linebackers.
"He was a monster of a man," Olsen wrote. "Shaking in my cleats, he gave me a wink before a coach gave the cadence. He let me pancake him. And he sold it too."
Olsen, who earned a scholarship to Notre Dame before landing in the NFL, said that moment changed him forever.
"I can't even tell you how good I felt at that moment," he wrote. "The whole camp cheered for me, a chubby kid that didn't know if he even liked football. From then on, I was addicted. All thanks to this 10-time All-Pro (who) felt like making some snot-nosed kid's day.
"Rest in peace Junior. I'll never forget what you did for me."
