Junior Seau, the 12-time Pro Bowl linebacker who killed himself last year, suffered from the same debilitating brain disease diagnosed in at least two other former NFL defensive players who also committed suicide, a study released on Thursday said.

Seau, 43, died in May after shooting himself in the chest at his beachfront house in his hometown of Oceanside, California. He played mostly for the San Diego Chargers and two other teams in a 20-year career in the NFL.

A study of Seau's brain by a team of independent researchers found he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, likely brought on by two decades of blows to the head as a NFL player, the report said.