Sep 1997; San Diego, CA, USA: FILE PHOTO; San Diego Chargers linebacker Junior Seau (55) at Jack Murphy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Brouillet-US PRESSWIRE

In a USA Today report on Friday, the news came out. Seau had been relying on prescription medicine just to be able to sleep at night.

The extensive piece of reporting and digging done by the staff at USA Today should be commended. They interviewed over 50 of Seau’s friends and relatives in an attempt to put the jigsaw puzzle of Seau’s post-NFL life together.

Shortly after Junior Seau tragically took his own life on May 2nd of this year, I reported the heartbreaking news here on catcrave.com and theorized he suffered from some sort of Traumatic Brain Injury or injuries during his long career. Although never “officially” listed of having had any concussions, the climate among coaches and players both used to be “ah, he just got his bell rung, he’ll be fine.”

These days we know better.

Ambien is the sleep drug Seau was taking. Seau also was known to abuse alcohol, contrary to warnings with the medication’s package insert and label not to mix it with alcohol.

The FDA warns that patients suffering depression could have suicidal thoughts with the class of drugs that contains Ambien.

Furthermore, he apparently used the drug at least as far back as 2005, still in his playing days, when one of his ex-teammates visited him in Miami during his tenure with the Dolphins.

UNC researchers say that sleep disorders are common in people with TBIs – Traumatic Brain Injury. The USA Today report says that the family hasn’t decided whether or not to donate Seau’s brain for study of the long-term effects of concussions on brain cells and the overall organ.

For those of you that are very sensitive to unpleasant details, you should close this article now and stop reading it. You’ve been warned.

On a personal note, I can understand the family’s reluctance to say yes to the request, but they’re facing emotions the rest of us hope we never have to face. Junior may have thought an entire bottle of Ambien might not do the job as he had been dependent upon it and probably had built up some sort of tolerance to it if that’s possible with that type of drug. He had to know a gunshot inside his mouth would end things quickly and painlessly, but shot himself in the chest to suffer and bleed to death instead.

When I ask myself “Why?” The answer seems clear: He still had enough rational thought about him to know that if he took the “easier” path – if one can call either path “easy” – his brain would be destroyed and useless for study. I think the manner in which he did what he did speaks a lot about his own intentions concerning the aftermath.

Oct 25, 2009; London, ENGLAND; New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau (55) during the regular season NFL International Series game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley Stadium. The Patriots defeated the Buccaneers 35-7. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

NFL.com wire reports the following from the medical examiner’s office:

“Seau’s family has decided to allow researchers to study his brain for evidence of damage stemming from concussions, San Diego Chargers chaplain Shawn Mitchell told The Los Angeles Times on Thursday.”

“The family was considering this almost from the beginning, but they didn’t want to make any emotional decisions,” Mitchell said. “And when they came to a joint decision that absolutely this was the best thing, it was a natural occurrence for the Seau family to go forward.”

Upon learning of Seau’s tragic death on Wednesday, I posted what little is usually known about such things when they happen and postulated that his suicide had to come from TBI, or Traumatic Brain Injury.

When I posted 2 days ago about autopsy results taking time, I was referring to the more detailed things like the condition of Seau’s brain. Determining that Seau indeed died from a gunshot wound to the chest isn’t something it would have taken a genius to figure out, given the sad circumstances. Sometimes Medical Examiners must state the obvious.

He was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest and the medical examiner confirmed this as the direct cause of death. The reasons for the suicide are always less straightforward, but I stand by my belief that Seau had to have had significant damage to his brain. His ex-wife, Gina, has said that he had concussions in his career although he never reported any of them. Unfortunately, the NFL is a place for “tough guys only” and players undoubtedly felt peer pressure to be on the field instead of “sitting out with a headache.”

They’re also constantly worried about someone coming in, playing well, and taking their job.

It certainly happens. Dan Marino did it to…..who? Anyone remember? David Woodley.

There’s a reason Marino is more well-known than Woodley. Such things do NOT escape the notice of the other players on the team and around the league. There’s an unwritten rule that you don’t lose your job due to injury. That unwritten rule isn’t worth the paper it isn’t written on. Ask Drew Bledsoe that same question regarding a kid named Tom Brady.

Keep a sharp eye on this case, folks. I’ll be shocked if they do NOT find significant damage to the man’s brain. But what will it mean?

It’ll mean the NFL will tighten down even more on the hits.

They already have rules about hitting a “defenseless” player, which is a good thing. Who wants to see Steve Smith laid out on a cheap shot and miss 9 games? Fans want to see the stars playing, not subs struggling.

We also would like to see them suffer a lot less than the people like Seau, Mike Webster, Lyle Alzedo and scores of others have and that died at such a relatively young age.

Just try to remember this sort of thing the next time you cry about how the NFL puts a skirt on the quarterbacks, or when James Harrison gets fined for laying the lumber on an opposing running back, leading with his head.

Expect Seau’s high-profile death here to kick the NFL into yet another round of open, even more frank discussions of contact and restricting certain types of contact even further.

They’ve seen the problems cut blocks can cause on linemens’ legs and put in a rule years ago that you cannot block below the waist IF that person is already engaged with another blocker up high. Most people are probably unaware of this change, but the defensive linemen certainly have welcomed it.

The NFL will always be a violent place. People still get hurt even with rule changes and that will always be the case.

To borrow a phrase we’ve all seen travelling along the road in construction zones: “Let ‘em work, Let ‘em Live!”