Syracuse, N.Y. -- New details about former Syracuse football All-American Chris Gedney's death will be mentioned Tuesday night on an HBO show examining the NFL concussion settlement finalized last year.

HBO correspondent Jon Frankel, a Syracuse University alumnus who struck up a friendship with Gedney over the last few years, says Gedney committed suicide after recognizing something was wrong with his brain, leading to depression and other behavior issues.

Frankel said Monday afternoon in an interview with Syracuse.com that Gedney's family informed him of the cause of death and approved the decision to discuss it on the air.

Gedney died March 9 at his home in Syracuse at the age of 47.

The Onondaga County 911 center dispatchers confirmed then that police responded to Gedney's house to investigate a possible suicide.

Syracuse police would only say at the time that they were investigating a death at the residence. Asked if the death was a suicide, police responded that it was department policy not to comment on suicides.

Contacted Monday, a police spokesman said the investigation remains open and declined to release any more information.

Gedney spent seven seasons in the NFL with the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals. Injuries sabotaged his tenure with the Bears, and a severe disease called ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease that causes long-lasting inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract, threatened his career after arriving in Arizona.

He had surgery to remove his colon and was briefly cut by the Cardinals before returning to the team and finishing his career with 83 catches, 914 yards and eight touchdowns.

"Chris was in a career," Tim Ahern, a former Syracuse football letterman and longtime local businessman, said earlier this year at Gedney's funeral, "that had occupational hazards."

Ahern said Gedney had a "pain he hid from all of us," a pain unrecognizable in a man devoted to his family and community, a man who often "turned setbacks into comebacks."

Frankel raised Gedney's death in an interview with Craig Seeger, an attorney who negotiated the NFL players' concussion settlement. Frankel was asking Seeger about which mental health conditions are included in the NFL's billion-dollar payout when Frankel refers to Gedney.

Talking today with Syracuse.com, Frankel said he and Gedney would grab a bite to eat a few times a year in New York. It was at these dinners, Frankel said, Gedney discussed his concerns about his future.

"He wouldn't say, 'I have CTE,' " Frankel said, "but he was definitely scared of what might happen."

Frankel has dealt with several former football players who hold similar worries about their future health.

When Frankel's wife called to inform him of the death in March, his first thought was that Gedney took his life.

"He wasn't pleased with the way his mind was reacting to things, emotionally," Frankel said. "That was of grave concern to him."

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel will air at 10 p.m. Tuesday on HBO.

Contact Nate Mink anytime: 315-430-8253 |

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