Seau dies from gunshot

Through her tears, Luisa Seau said that there had been no warning of this. How could her son, Junior, who had so much promise in his life and during a glittery football career, want to kill himself?

“I don’t understand,” she wailed.

But Seau, 43, a star linebacker at the University of Southern California and for his hometown San Diego Chargers, apparently ended his life Wednesday with a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Oceanside, Calif., home.

Oceanside Police Chief Frank McCoy said Seau’s girlfriend went to the beachfront home about 9:30 a.m. and found him dead in a bedroom. Police and paramedics tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him.

McCoy said Seau died of a gunshot wound to the chest. A handgun was found near the body. The case is being investigated as a suicide, although police found no suicide note.

Seau’s ex-wife, Gina, said that on Tuesday he sent her and each of their three children – daughter Sydney and sons Jake and Hunter – a text message, ending with “I love you.”

Seau, an All-Pro linebacker who spent most of his 20-year NFL career with the Chargers, retired in 2006 and then “unretired” days later, saying he was not ready to leave a game that he loved. He retired for good after the 2009 season.

Seau will be remembered as one of the greatest players in NFL history at any position, a 6-foot-3, 248-pound wrecking ball who made the Pro Bowl 12 years in a row and was voted All-Pro 10 times.

L.A. Times