Doylestown Mother's Tragedy Detailed in Moving New York Times Column

Patrick Risha was a relentless competitor, renowned for his fierceness in a sport that relies on fierceness. And in the end, what made him great was also the thing that may have ended his life at age 32, according to a moving New York Times piece by columnist Dan Barry that has attracted widespread attention and praise on social media:

A mother sat at the edge of her bed...She was on the edge, cellphone pressed to her ear.

This fraught conversation with her son had started as a quarrel over his scatterbrain ways. A Dartmouth graduate, a decade out of college, should be able to balance his checkbook. But not Patrick, whose troubles in navigating everyday life frustrated everyone. Especially Patrick.

Now her son was on the phone again, saying disturbing things in a casual tone.

As she looks back on that late night last September, their conversation wasn’t just about a measly $400 bank overdraft. It was about football. The word was never uttered, but that’s what this was really about. Football.

Risha was a star athlete, but also smart, and he went on to play for and graduate from Dartmouth College. People who knew him went out of their way to describe how kind and intelligent he was.

“It never ceased to amaze me how kind and engaging he was to anyone that crossed his path,” said his sister Amanda, on the StopCTE website, a foundation created in his honor.

But, again, there were signs that something was off. A gregarious guy who loved to shock preppies with his gritty Pennsylvania persona was now reclusive. A student who could write a lengthy paper with ease now struggled to jot down notes. He began taking Adderall for attention deficit disorder, but no dosage could lock in his focus.

The Horse returned to the Mon Valley, unable to carry himself. He gambled online. He took painkillers. He spent money he didn’t have. He had fits of anger that overshadowed his big-hearted nature. Most of all, he seemed overwhelmed by the prospect of paying a bill or updating a cellphone plan.

But tragically, the world is just becoming aware of chronic traumatic encephalopathy - CTE. Risha committed suicide in September 2014, according to the story.

His mother, Karen Kinzle Zegel has launched the StopCTE initiative to improve public education about the disease and help families to look for signs before it’s too late.

Zegel will look to reach out to mothers of football players, the story states.

Read Dan Barry’s column on Risha here, in The New York Times.

(Photo credit: Bekavac Funeral Home)