Essayist Quits as NFL Fan After Seau Death

The medical examiner in San Diego confirmed today that Junior Seau committed suicide with a gunshot to the chest, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. The family has not decided yet whether to donate his brain to researchers to see if he suffered damage from football. Seau's former wife told the AP that he sustained concussions as a player, but she didn't know whether they contributed to his death.

The suicide, though, is enough for Ta-Nehisi Coates to call it quits as a longtime football fan. "I'm not here to dictate other people's morality," he writes in the Atlantic. "I'm certainly not here to call for banning of the risky activities of consenting adults." But he says it's clear that football isn't ready to confront what's happening to its players. "I'm out." (Click to read another writer's view that this could become a common refrain.)