How CTE explains why former KC Chiefs great Jim Tyrer is on cusp of Hall of Fame
Long before an understanding emerged of the horrors entwined with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, Brad Tyrer and his siblings understood something essential about the shattering last acts of their father, Jim: the 1980 murder of his wife, Martha, and his subsequent suicide in their home.
“My dad was just a great guy, an all-around great guy; he didn’t cuss, he didn’t drink, you never saw him raise his voice at my mom, ever,” Brad said in a 2020 phone interview. “It was just that something snapped. And that wasn’t him … It was somebody else who did that.”
That knowledge sustained the family of the Chiefs great through the decades when that gruesome ending stigmatized Tyrer’s life in virtually every way — including rendering him nuclear for election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite his overwhelming credentials as a player.
Doubtless reflecting a deepening understanding of the implications of CTE, though, all of that changed Tuesday.
The PFHOF senior committee in essence made a tacit acknowledgment that those last acts were committed by the beast of CTE, not the 41-year-old Tyrer himself.
Because after being the subject of little or no discussion for nearly half a century since his early eligibility, Tyrer prevailed through multiple cutdowns to now stand one step — albeit a big one — from inclusion in the next class of Hall of Fame enshrinees.
Others to similarly advance on Tuesday included seniors Maxie Baughan and Sterling Sharpe, coach Mike Holmgren and contributor Ralph Hay.
(Former Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer was among the nine finalists for the coaching honor; former Chiefs defensive back Albert Lewis was among the last nine of the seniors. Also on Wednesday, the Concussion Legacy Foundation announced that Baughan had been diagnosed with stage three (of four) CTE after his brain was donated upon his death at age 85 last year.)
From here, the candidates must be approved by at least 80% of the full selection committee at their annual meeting before the Super Bowl — and a maximum of three of those five will move forward for induction.
Whatever happens from here, though, this is a profound step for the family.
When I spoke with Brad Tyrer on Monday, before the cutdown was known, he thought about what it had meant just for his father to be considered anew now.
And what it would mean more broadly if he’d make this cut.
“As far as history goes right now, my dad is not a good guy; he’s been viewed for the past 44 years as a very bad person,” Brad said, choking up and pausing. “We just feel like if he gets in, and his story is retold and people revisit Jim Tyrer as a man, that the true legacy of him will be out there. Not what it is today.
“That’s what’s meaningful to us.”
‘100 % sure he had CTE’
For years, the family hadn’t spent much time thinking about what this distinction might mean.
Having their father in the Hall of Fame, Brad said, hardly was a gnawing matter, even if his qualifications always said he belonged.
After all, he was a six-time All-Pro, the first-team left tackle on the AFL’s All-Time Team and a mainstay on three AFL title teams — including the two that played in Super Bowls.
But in recent years, Brad and his siblings came to embrace some hope of a redemptive change of narrative.
That feeling arose in part because of the advancements in the science of CTE, but more intensely through the efforts of documentary filmmaker Kevin Patrick Allen.
Allen has been working for years on the upcoming “Beneath the Shadow” and already produced the documentary “A Good Man … The Jim Tyrer Story.”
To the eternal gratitude of the family, his tireless research brought forth some key fresh perspectives that he outlined in a powerful guest commentary for The Star — and that was seen by the Hall of Fame’s senior committee.
Those voices included that of a doctor who was treating Tyrer in 1980 and from those most familiar with the brain disease caused by repeated head injuries. CTE often triggers aggression, depression and impulsive or erratic behavior.
“If it walks like a duck, it quacks, it has webbed feet and water goes off its back, it’s not a zebra: It’s CTE,” Doug Paone, the doctor who treated Tyrer just days before the chilling end, told me in a phone interview last week. “(Tyrer) would be the poster child for CTE.”
He later added, “That’s 100%. Not even 99. I’m 100% sure that he had CTE.”
In another phone interview last week, Chris Nowinski, co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Federation, reiterated his belief that Tyrer was 95% certain to have had CTE.
That’s based on several things: the research of some 376 brains of former NFL players, 345 of whom (91.7%) had CTE, including Tyrer’s former teammate, Ed Lothamer; Nowinski’s understanding of the circumstances of pro football line play of the era; and what he learned through Brad Tyrer in discussions initiated by Allen.
“When you see such a drastic change in behavior, you see somebody who just did not seem capable of this act, and we know that CTE is present in this population … I think it helps us make that separation,” Nowinski said.
Noting last week that the renewed Hall of Fame consideration of Tyrer seems to suggest a cultural change in understanding about the ravages of CTE, Nowinski added that this honor only means something to him in a certain context because of his issues with the NFL in general.
“While Jim and his wife were victims of CTE, the children growing up (without parents) are … greater victims,” he said. “So if it’s meaningful to them, it’s meaningful to me.
“And if his children can forgive him, then I think we as a society can forgive him.”
‘He doesn’t act the same’
For his part, Paone has felt haunted by what happened and was praying for this outcome for the sake of the family.
His meeting with Jim and Martha two days before the murder-suicide remains vivid to him.
Complaining of headaches and stomach issues, struggling in the wake of some failed business ventures, Tyrer had been referred to him by a Chiefs orthopedist.
But after a thorough blood evaluation and CT scan, Paone recalled telling Tyrer he couldn’t find much wrong with him physically and suggested, “I do have a feeling that there might be some depression.”
“And he said, ‘No, I don’t have any depression,’” said Paone, who has been practicing in Florida the last 22 years. “He was a very proud man. It was almost like to admit that you have depression is like a put-down or a lack of self-image. That’s the kind of feeling I got from him.”
As they left the exam room and Tyrer walked ahead, Martha took Paone’s arm and with serious urgency said, “There’s something wrong with him.”
She also conveyed to him that Jim was “just not the same. He doesn’t act the same. Doesn’t seem to think the same. He’s not the same person that I used to know. And he’s forgetful. He has momentary lapses of memory. He has headaches all the time.’
When you look at the new literature on CTE, Paone added, “he fits it to the ‘T.’”
As they checked out from the appointment, Paone convinced Tyrer to see a psychiatrist and arranged an appointment for the next Monday. Per Paone’s memory, Tyrer said, “‘OK, I’ll go, but I don’t think I’m depressed.’”
Then came that tragic Sunday, Sept. 15, 1980, when three of the four children were home as Tyrer shot and killed Martha and himself.
Paone remembers being in shock at news the likes of which he’d never dealt with before or since.
He understands people still will question what happened and whether it’s being rationalized by the assumption of CTE.
“Well, I would just say, why did he do that?” he said. “Because he gave his entire life to football and damaged his brain. And the brain damage led to what he did.”
Paone added, “I’m sure that if he never had played offensive line, or had never been a football player, for that matter, he would never have killed his wife and himself.”
One way or another, the Tyrer children came to understand long ago that a monster had invaded their father.
In large part thanks to Allen — “who knows more about our family than we do,” Brad said — and the work of the PFHOF senior committee, they hope that can be much more broadly appreciated now.
This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 2:07 PM.