After former NFL linebacker, Junior Seau, 43, was found dead in his Southern California home yesterday due to an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, it was hard to make sense of anything. But after the police ruled the death a suicide, no one wondered why the chest was chosen. It was the very same way that former Chicago Bears Dave Duerson took his own life last February and all of it points to head trauma suffered by former NFL players.

At the time of Duerson’s death it was found that he chose to keep his brain intact so that it could later be studied for signs of CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. While it hasn’t yet been reported that Seau had the same intention, the similarities certainly are striking. And they also help bolster the case of former NFL players who currently have a lawsuit against the league in which they are asking for damages as well as reimbursement for health and medical costs. Sadly one of the plaintiffs in that case, Ray Easterling who played for the Atlanta Falcons during the 1970s, also shot himself just two weeks ago.

It’s becoming a case of there simply being too many victims to count. And although it’s still yet to be found whether or not Seau’s death was due to head trauma caused by repeated concussions, the problems of insanely rough play and sending players back out onto the field after sustaining an injury are becoming obvious.

Junior Seau was nothing short of a legend in the NFL. He played for the league over a course of 20 years and was with the Chargers for 12 of them. It was during his time with San Diego that he took them to the Super Bowl, had 12 back-to-back Pro Bowl appearances, and was also voted to All-Pro six times.