Fred McNeill
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Frederick Arnold McNeill (May 6, 1952 – November 3, 2015) was an American professional
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
player who was a
linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...
for the
Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...
of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
(NFL) for 12 seasons from 1974-1985. He played
college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...
for the
UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...
. In 1973, he was named to the All-Coast/Conference First-team. McNeil was selected by the Vikings in the first round of the 1974 NFL Draft with the 17th overall selection. He was the first person to have been diagnosed with CTE while alive and have it confirmed following his death.


Professional career

He played on defenses that led the NFC in fewest points allowed in 1976 and the NFL in fewest total yards allowed in 1975 and fewest passing yards allowed in 1976. McNeill appeared in 2
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the gam ...
s with the Vikings, Super Bowl IX and
Super Bowl XI Super Bowl XI was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Minnesota Vikings to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for i ...
. McNeill blocked a punt in
Super Bowl XI Super Bowl XI was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Minnesota Vikings to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for i ...
.


Later years

During his last campaign with the Vikings, he began his studies at the William Mitchell College of Law, where he graduated at the top of his class. He eventually became a partner with a
Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origi ...
area law firm following his NFL career. McNeill was voted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012. In his later years he was diagnosed with dementia, and was formally diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in 2009.Laskas, Jeanne Marie. "The People V. Football," ''GQ'' (magazine), March 2011.
/ref> In March 2014 he received a diagnosis of
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most commo ...
(Lou Gehrig's Disease). He died of ALS on November 3, 2015 at the age of 63. Following his death Doctor
Bennet Omalu Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu (born September 30, 1968"About Bennet Omalu"
, B ...
conducted an autopsy on McNeil and confirmed the CTE diagnosis.


Personal life

McNeill was married to Tia McNeill and they had two sons, Fred Jr. and Gavin. McNeill was the unnamed individual in a study published online in the journal Neurosurgery, where evidence of CTE was observed during scans while he was still alive and confirmed during an autopsy following his death. These results may help in detecting CTE in living individuals and help to improve understanding and treatment.


References


External links

Sportspeople from Durham, North Carolina American football linebackers UCLA Bruins football players Minnesota Vikings players 1952 births 2015 deaths Neurological disease deaths in California Deaths from motor neuron disease 20th-century American lawyers {{linebacker-1950s-stub