Late Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher had brain damage signs, report says

Former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, who killed his girlfriend in 2012 and committed suicide hours later, showed signs of the brain disease found in other deceased NFL players, according to a neuropathologist’s report.

In the report, obtained by ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” Dr. Piotr Kozlowski writes that he detected neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein, a signature of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which researchers say is triggered by repeated head trauma and linked to dementia, memory loss and depression.

On Dec. 1, 2012, the 25-year-old Belcher shot and killed girlfriend Kasandra Perkins, the mother of his infant daughter. Belcher then drove to the Chiefs facility, and, despite the pleading of team officials, fatally shot himself in the parking lot.

Belcher’s body was exhumed a year after his death so his brain could be examined. Kozlowski was hired to perform the study by court-appointed Kansas City attorneys who represent his daughter. Those lawyers have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Chiefs on her behalf.

Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd, who initiated the process of having her son’s body exhumed for examination, has filed a nearly identical suit against the Chiefs.