Three months after his death, the family of Frank Gifford revealed that the former NFL star, sportscaster and husband of Today host Kathie Lee Gifford died of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease usually associated with concussions.

"We as a family made the difficult decision to have [Gifford's] brain studied in hopes of contributing to the advancement of medical research concerning the link between football and traumatic brain injury," said the family in a statement.

"Our suspicions that he was suffering from the debilitating effects of head trauma were confirmed when a team of pathologists recently diagnosed his condition as that of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)—a progressive degenerative brain disease," it continued.

This revelation comes in the wake of the recent deaths of several former NFL stars, including Junior Seau and Dave Duerson. Former Dallas Cowboys great Tony Dorsett announced in 2013 that he had been diagnosed with signs of CTE.

Source: Eonline.com

 

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