Silence is a killer: Football great Mark Rypien speaks out about CTE

“Silence is a killer, and I don’t want to be another statistic.” Those words are one of the last things that football great Mark Rypien told KHQ/SWX when we interviewed him about traumatic brain injuries back in March. Rypien was speaking up to lend a voice to stories we don’t hear often enough: traumatic brain injuries from sports, which can lead to mental health issues, which can then lead to suicide. Rypien also told us he was compelled to open up after so that what happened to up and comer Tyler Hilinski, doesn’t happen to anyone else. Hilinski, Washington State’s backup quarterback, committed suicide in January. He was 21-years-old when he died, hadn’t played all that much football in college and when he did, he was quarterback, one of the most protected positions. So when the Mayo Clinic told his parents they’d confirmed he had CTE, it was a surprise. CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, is a degenerative brain disease. Getting hit in the head causes your brain to bruise. If you get hit enough times, that bruising causes the accumulation of a protein called Tau, which then spreads through the brain like a poison. Symptoms of CTE include headaches, mood changes, memory problems, depression and issues with impulse control. Mark Rypien has experienced them all. “I’ve attempted suicide,” he says. “I took 150 pills and a bottle of booze. If it wasn’t for my wife, I wouldn’t be here today.” Today, Rypien says he’s seeking treatment for CTE and he says it’s helping.