![]() 'DOESN'T MAKE SENSE': Charles Johnson's mysterious death baffles community MORE: Charles Johnson claimed he had brain problems years ago, before his death in July MORE: Death of ex-NFL receiver Charles Johnson ruled a suicide by medical examiner “In the previous week, he had been acting strange and had recently purchased a funeral and cremation service,” said the medical examiner's report, obtained by USA TODAY Sports. It is, however, accurate to say that football severely damaged his physical body, and based on the science, it's safe to say it perhaps did damage to his mind, too. It would be unfair to draw a direct correlation between football and Johnson taking his own life. Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young this week told the "Let's Go!" podcast with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray that the day after retiring, "you're at the bottom of a cliff in a broken sack of bones." Then, after the game is over, some players realize there's not much else they can do outside of football, and that takes an additional toll on their mental health. Not because I knew him well (I didn't) but because I think, occasionally, as we watch and love the NFL, we need to use moments like these to remember that football, while beautiful and graceful, is also brutal and highly destructive to the body and mind. I don't want him to just disappear into the night. Quietly, amid a flurry of huge sports headlines over the past 48 hours, this ruling about Johnson's death has gone almost unnoticed. A report released on Monday from the state medical examiner's office ruled that Johnson had died by suicide. Johnson, 50, was found dead in a hotel room about six miles from his house on July 17 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Johnson, like many other players before him and since, was mostly invisible in his post-playing career. He was a star receiver at the University of Colorado, but in the NFL he was a solid player for four teams from 1994-2003. Then their careers are over and we mostly forget about them. They practice hard, play hard and go home, only to do it again and again and again. Their jerseys aren't sold by the millions. ![]() They aren't always noticed (unless something goes wrong). Players who aren't the stars but are still the lifeblood of the sport. As you watch the playoffs starting this weekend and eventually the Super Bowl, you will see hundreds of players like him. ![]() It's a story about a former NFL player named Charles Johnson. It's not power rankings or gossip about who will coach what team next. It's not about a college football championship game. It's not the kind of story that will draw great page views. This is a simple story about a man you probably didn't know.
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