Kosta Karageorge's Autopsy Found No Evidence of Brain Trauma at Time of Suicide

Former Ohio State Buckeyes student-athlete Kosta Karageorge was not suffering from brain trauma at the time of his suicide last November, according to Andrew Welsh-Huggins of The Associated Press.

With the high number of former NFL players to have died while suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease, the prevalence of and medical attention paid to concussions in football has become one of the biggest issues in sports. The discussion reached a fever pitch following the League of Denial documentary.

There were questions as to Karageorge's mental health when he passed away, per ESPN.com:

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His mother, Susan Karageorge, told police he has had several concussions and a few spells of being extremely confused, according to the report. She said that at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, he texted a message that cited the concussions and said, "I am sorry if I am an embarrassment."

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Karageorge went missing last fall, and Columbus police found his body in a dumpster in Columbus on Dec. 6. County coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz ruled his death a suicide. Welsh-Huggins reported that Ortiz's cause of death will remain the same following the results of the neuropathology reports.

OSU wrestling coach Tom Ryan told The Columbus Dispatch in December that Karageorge didn't have any recorded history with concussions during his time with the team, per ESPN.com's Austin Ward.

In a December interview with Doug Lesmerises of the Northeast Ohio Media Group, Buckeyes defensive tackle Michael Bennett said that Karageorge would try to hide his concussions and play through them:

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He never reported them. Kosta, I've said it before, I think he was the toughest guy I ever met. He must have been dealing with a lot of stuff internally. He was so appreciative of everything and so hard working, when he got one during practice, or something like that, he wouldn't tell anybody.

We would tell him to take it easy, if you want to sit out nobody is going to judge you, anything like that, because those are serious. But his mentality was always never quit, never back down from a challenge.

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Karageorge was a member of the Ohio State wrestling team from 2011 through 2013 and joined the football team ahead of the 2014 campaign.