Crime

What role did CTE play in Junior Siavii’s troubles? Here’s what his lawyers say

By David Hudnall

Updated March 13, 2022 8:46 AM

Junior celebrates after dropping running back Tatum Bell for a loss during the second quarter of a December 2004 game against the Denver Broncos. File Kansas City Star

Life, mysterious death of Kansas City Chiefs’ Junior Siavii

Junior Siavii came to Kansas City as a promising defensive tackle. His NFL career fizzled. He turned to drugs and crime. He was found unresponsive in a Leavenworth prison cell and pronounced dead at a local hospital in January. Did football play a role?

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Since 2019, Junior Siavii’s attorneys were requesting and collecting medical records from during and after his career, planning to present them as evidence in his criminal trial. “I believe that Mr. Siavii has some sort of brain injury that we want to address and have analyzed and evaluate,” his lawyer told a federal judge in a pretrial conference.

Here’s a transcript of that conference.

This story was originally published March 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM.