© 2024 WLRN
MIAMI | SOUTH FLORIDA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Three more ’72 Dolphins suffered from severe brain disease linked to head trauma

Jake Scott, right, talks on the night he was inducted in the Dolphins' Ring of Honor with Bill Stanfill, left, in 2010. Scott was suffering from the most severe stage of CTE before his death in 2020.
Jim Rassol
/
Sun Sentinel
Jake Scott, right, talks on the night he was inducted in the Dolphins' Ring of Honor with Bill Stanfill, left, in 2010. Scott was suffering from the most severe stage of CTE before his death in 2020.

Jake Scott plotted to leave life as he lived it and asked friends around his world to help. Hawaii. Colorado. Georgia. They checked daily on the former Miami Dolphins great, performed small chores or even allowed Scott to move in for weeks at a time.

“Jake knew of his problems, and he set it up with these friends so he could still go on his traveling circuit each year and live as independently as possible,’’ said Rita Fabal, sister of the late defensive back.

Why Scott needed help, maybe why he fell and then died at age 75 in 2020, becomes the final price of football perfection. Together with 1972 Dolphins teammates Jim Kiick and Nick Buoniconti, Scott suffered from the most severe Stage 4 of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma that can only be discovered after death.

Read more from our news partner, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

More On This Topic