The former tight end for the New England Patriots had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, Boston University’s School of Medicine said in a statement. Hernandez had been serving a life sentence for murder when he hanged himself in his cell in April.
Dr. Ann McKee, the director of the school’s CTE Center, said Hernandez had stage three CTE, with stage four being the most severe of the disease that has been diagnosed in a number of NFL players.
US media reported that Hernandez’s lawyer, Jose Baez, has filed a federal lawsuit against the NFL and the Patriots on behalf of Hernandez’s daughter and Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, who was engaged to him at the time of his death.
The lawsuit said Hernandez had “the most severe case of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) medically seen in a person of his young age of 28 years” by Boston University researchers.
Hernandez signed a seven-year, $40 million contract with the Patriots prior to the 2012 season.
Hernandez, who played three seasons with the team, had had numerous run-ins with the law during his college football career at the University of Florida.
He was sentenced to life in prison in April 2015 for the murder of Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro football player whose bloodied body was found less than a mile from Hernandez’s luxury Massachusetts home in 2013. The two men had been dating sisters.
