Since I began wondering about the ultimate fate of former NCSU football player Chris Colmer, I have discovered that I’ve not been alone. Many people have found this blog through Internet searches, looking for details about Chris’s death. A good number of these searches have included the keyword “suicide.”
First off, let me emphatically state that don’t know for sure the details of Chris’s death. I don’t know if he took his own life or it was a simple car wreck as others have stated. I only have the sketchiest of details and no communication with his family, so I only speak for myself here – this is my opinion only. Hell, I’m not even sure why I’m drawn to Chris’s death. I didn’t know him and I’m not the biggest football fan, either. Why this intrigues me is as much a mystery to me as it probably is to you.
Yesterday, though, as I was thinking about something else, the thought popped into my head that (assuming Chris did take his own life) Chris may have been another victim of CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Like Penn football player Owen Thomas, did the concussions Chris received during his football career drive him to suicide (assuming that his cause of death was suicide)? The recent suicide of former Bears player Dave Duerson brought it back to mind.
Again, it’s just a hunch, and an odd one for me since it came out of the blue. The CTE explanation came to me, though, it felt like the answer. Maybe we’ll eventually learn more about Chris’s death and these questions will be put to rest. If Chris actually did suffer from CTE (and killed himself because of it – and, again, I don’t know for sure that he did kill himself), then maybe his death will serve to shine more light on this terrible disease. At this point all anyone can do is speculate.