Junior Seau’s Brain Headed East for Study by National Institutes of Health

Junior Seau’s brain will be studied by federal scientists—a step toward determining if head injuries in his storied NFL career may have led to his depression and suicide.

Sarah Gordon, a spokeswoman for the county Medical Examiner’s Office, said she offered a reporter a statement Thursday morning on whether the office still had Seau’s brain.

She wrote: “Brain tissue has been released to the National Institutes of Health for Study; we have no information about the type of study that will be performed.”

Gordon also noted that some media reports said “some” brain tissue was released for study by the federal agency based in Bethesda, MD.

 “No reason to qualify with ‘some,’” she said Thursday.

U-T San Diego reported Thursday that Seau’s sister Mary Seau was unaware of any authorization.

“The last time we had a family meeting on this was at my parents’ house a week after the death,” she was quoted as saying. “My family agreed to do this to help other football players. But we haven’t had a meeting since then to authorize the release of the tissue.”

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