Parents of college quarterback Tyler Hilinski reveal son had CTE when he died by suicide
TODAY
The parents of Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski, who died by suicide at 21 in January, have revealed that he had the degenerative brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) at the time of his death.
Mark and Kym Hilinski spoke exclusively with TODAY Tuesday about a new Sports Illustrated documentary in which they reflect on whether their son having CTE, which multiple studies have linked to concussions from playing football, contributed to his death.
"Did football kill Tyler?'' Kym says in the documentary. "I don't think so. Did he get CTE from football? Probably. Was that the only thing that attributed to his death? I don't know."
"The medical examiner said he had the brain of a 65-year-old, which is really hard to take,'' Mark told Hoda Kotb on Tuesday. "He was the sweetest, most outgoing, giving kid. That was difficult to hear."
The Pullman Police Department said Hilinski shot himself in the head with a .223 caliber rifle in his apartment on Jan. 16 after taking the rifle from a teammate four days earlier without the teammate's knowledge.
His parents said on TODAY that he didn't even know how to shoot a gun and had never shot one until the day before he died.
"He didn't know what he was doing when he had that AR-15,'' Kym said. "I think the fact that how he did it was a shock in itself."
He was last seen dropping a teammate off at class that morning, but when he didn't show up for practice, two teammates went looking for him and discovered his body in his apartment.
Washington State University had many safeguards in place to protect students before the tragedy and is adding more, the school said in a statement to NBC News.
"A second formal mental health screening for all members of the football team (was added) after we lost Tyler, along with meetings with all varsity athletes to help identify individuals who might be at risk for mental health issues,'' the university said in the statement.
Hilinski was a rising star expected to start at quarterback this fall for the Cougars, a kind young man who always looked out for others but was privately struggling with mental health issues.
"There weren't really any verbal signs from Tyler to us or to anybody at Washington State that he was suffering,'' Kim said on TODAY.
His family was contacted by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota following his death and agreed to give the hospital his brain for an autopsy.
