Max Tuerk (January 27, 1994 – June 20, 2020) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a center in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans (also Southern California Trojans) are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ...

. He was a first-team all-

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

selection in 2014. Tuerk was selected in the third round of the

2016 NFL draft The 2016 NFL draft was the 81st annual draft of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. As in 2015, the draft took place at the Auditorium Theatre and Grant Park in Chicago. The draft beg ...

by the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

. He spent his rookie year with the Chargers and split time in his second and final NFL season with the Chargers and the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The ...

Early life

A native of

Trabuco Canyon, California Trabuco Canyon (''Trabuco'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Blunderbuss") is a small Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains in eastern Ora ...

, Max Tuerk was the eldest of Greg and Valerie Tuerk's four children. He had a younger brother Drake, and two sisters, Natalie and Abby. His father played tight end for

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in the early 1980s. Max Tuerk attended

Santa Margarita Catholic High School Santa Margarita Catholic High School (SMCHS) is a coeducational college preparatory Roman Catholic high school located in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, United States. SMCHS is owned and operated by the Diocese of Orange, and was opened i ...

, where he was a two-way lineman. His team won the CIF Pac-5 title (i.e., the Southern California championship) and CIF Division I state title in 2011. (Division I was the second-highest of five divisions at the time.) He also participated in

track & field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and ...

. Regarded as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Tuerk was listed as the No. 7

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tendency to cause acts of violence by the ...

prospect in his class.

College career

In his true freshman year at USC, Tuerk emerged as the starting left offensive tackle for USC's final five regular season games of 2012 after serving as a backup earlier in the season. When he got his first start at

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, he became the first-ever USC true freshman to start at left tackle (and the first to start at tackle since Winston Justice in the last 12 games of

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

). Tuerk was named Freshman All-American by ''

College Football News ''College Football News'' (''CFN'') is a magazine and website published by College Football News, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. News coverage includes scores, statistics, rankings, and reports on college football games. Analysis incl ...

''. He played in every game his first 3 seasons and was named to many all-star teams. Tuerk played all three interior lineman positions, but he was primarily a center. He was a team captain both his junior and senior years. Tuerk was considered one of the top centers in college football at the beginning of his senior year, but his season was cut short after five games when he tore an

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

Professional career

San Diego / Los Angeles Chargers

Tuerk was unable to participate in the post-season draft combines because of his knee injury, except he was able to do the

bench press The bench press or chest press is a weight training exercise where a person presses a weight upwards while lying horizontally on a weight training bench. The bench press is a Compound movements, compound movement, with the primary muscles involved ...

test. He was drafted by the

in the third round, 66th overall, in the

. Tuerk made the Chargers' roster in 2016 but was inactive for all 16 regular-season games, although he did play during the pre-season. Tuerk was suspended for the first four games of the 2017 season after violating the NFL policy on performance-enhancing substances. After being reinstated from suspension on October 3, 2017, he was released by the Chargers. He was re-signed to the Chargers

practice squad In gridiron football, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scou ...

on October 26, 2017.

Arizona Cardinals

On November 6, 2017, Tuerk was signed by the

off the Chargers' practice squad. On December 24, 2017, Tuerk made his only appearance in a regular-season NFL game on one play in Week 16, as the Cardinals beat the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

, 23–0. On April 12, 2018, Tuerk was released by the Cardinals.

Death

On June 20, 2020, Tuerk collapsed and died of an enlarged heart, an autopsy report revealed, while on a hike with his parents in the

Cleveland National Forest Cleveland National Forest is a National forest (United States), U.S. national forest in Southern California that encompasses 460,000 acres/ of inland Montane ecosystems, montane regions. It is approximately 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean, withi ...

. According to his family, Tuerk was struggling with mental illness during and after his pro football career. His mother Valerie Tuerk told the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' that the family had arranged to have his brain tissue sent to

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated trauma to the head. The encephalopathy symptoms can include behavioral problems, mood problems, and problems with thinking. The disease often gets wor ...

(CTE) Center. She said: "That was very important to us, because we feel that CTE probably had some impact on Max". An autopsy later confirmed that Tuerk had CTE. He is one of at least 345 NFL players to be diagnosed after death with this disease, which is caused by repeated hits to the head. A memorial service was held for Tuerk's friends and family on a beach near his home on Saturday, June 27, 2020, one week after his death.

References

External links

NFL Combine profileUSC Trojans bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuerk, Max 1994 births 2020 deaths American football offensive linemen Arizona Cardinals players Los Angeles Chargers players San Diego Chargers players Players of American football from Orange County, California USC Trojans football players Deaths from cardiomyopathy Players of American football with chronic traumatic encephalopathy Santa Margarita Catholic High School alumni