Former Detroit Lions running back Mel Farr, who once also headed the nation's largest black-owned business, had Stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) at the time of his death in 2015, Outside The Lines has learned.
Farr died suddenly on Aug. 3, 2015 at his home in Detroit from a massive heart attack due to undiagnosed hypertension. He was 70.
After his death, Farr's family donated his brain and spinal cord to Boston University School of Medicine where, since 2008, researchers have been testing the brains of deceased athletes for the presence of CTE, the progressive degenerative brain disease associated with repeated blows to the head.