SI.com: 44 current or former NFL players aged 50 or younger have died since 2021

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They’re the Toughest of the Tough. But When Their NFL Teammates Started Dying, These Men Grew Afraid.

More than 40 current or former pro players aged 50 or younger have fallen since 2021. The number is staggering. But it doesn’t account for their peers’ despair.

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Marques Harris, the former Chargers linebacker watched the Bills and the Chiefs clash in the AFC Championship in January 2021, one of his first NFL buddies sprang to mind. Harris had entered the league with San Diego in ’05 alongside receiver Vincent Jackson

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If Buffalo wins, I’m going to come to Tampa Bay, Harris texted Jackson. I would love to see you.

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Harris, though, didn’t know that he was texting a man who by then had been holed up in a hotel room outside of Tampa for two weeks as semis rumbled down I-75 outside his window. He didn’t know that his 38-year-old friend’s frontal lobes had shrunk. Or that the damage had triggered forgetfulness and paranoia. Or that Jackson had suffered depression in the six months after his 12-year NFL career ended, in 2016. Or that the only remedy he found for his loss of identity and mental acuity was at the bottom of a bottle, and that drinking had led Jackson and his wife, Lindsey, to shield their four children from his deterioration, setting him on a course to that lonely hotel room.

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Harris, when he texted, had no idea that Jackson was alone, drinking himself to death. He only knew that he missed his friend.

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Harris was floored because Jackson was the sixth former football friend who had either killed himself or died in despair—a list that includes Heisman winner Rashaan Salaam and pro football Hall of Famer Junior Seau, both of whom ended their lives with a bullet.

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In 2022, Charles Johnson, a former receiver who went to Super Bowls with two teams and later said he had suffered brain, head, spine and neck injuries, died by suicide at age 50. Marion Barber, a running back with the Cowboys and the Bears, died at 38 of heat stroke after a long string of mental health issues. Tony Siragusa, a Colts and Ravens defensive tackle, fell asleep at 55 and never woke up. (The direct cause of his death remains unconfirmed.) Shane Olivea, a Chargers and Giants lineman, was felled at 40 by a heart condition after struggling with prescription painkiller addiction. William White, a safety with three teams, succumbed to ALS at 56.

In April 2021, Phillip Adams, a journeyman corner, fatally shot six people and then himself. He was 32. Demaryius Thomas, who won a Super Bowl with the Broncos, died at 33 from complications of a seizure disorder. Geno Hayes, a linebacker with the Buccaneers and Bears and Jaguars, died at the same age of liver disease, which he’d attributed, in part, to a career spent taking over-the-counter painkillers. For Parys Haralson, a 49ers and Saints linebacker, it was a stroke, at 37. And Greg Clark, a 49ers tight end, shot himself in the head after exhibiting myriad symptoms of CTE. He was 49.

In all, 44 current or former NFL players aged 50 or younger have died since the start of 2021

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