The family of late Tennessee Titans legend Frank Wycheck announced the tight end tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) stage III. Wycheck died at 52 after falling at his home in Chattanooga, Tenn., in Dec. 2023.
Researchers from Boston University’s CTE Center confirmed the stage III diagnosis for Wycheck (stage IV being the most severe). The family announced shortly after his death that it would work with experts for brain injury and CTE research. Wycheck retired from the NFL at age 32 after suffering several concussions in his career.
“Our family is grateful to learn of his confirmed CTE diagnosis in hopes to continue our father’s desire to bring awareness, increased intervention, education and support for NFL alumni and their families related to CTE,” Wycheck’s daughter, Deanna Wycheck Szabo, said in a statement released by the family. “With ongoing CTE research and diagnosis, we hope future NFL alumni and families will be explicitly given an outline and plan of action in receiving care and treatment. That’s what our father would have wanted.”
Wycheck was central in the “Music City Miracle” — the biggest play in franchise history and one of the most memorable in NFL playoff history — leading to Tennessee’s lone Super Bowl appearance. On Jan. 8, 2000, with just 16 seconds left in the fourth quarter of the AFC Wild-Card game against the Buffalo Bills and his team trailing by a point, Wycheck fielded a kickoff before throwing a cross-field lateral to Kevin Dyson who went 75 yards for the winning touchdown.
The Titans would go on to lose Super Bowl XXXIV to the St. Louis Rams.
25 years ago, Frank Wycheck and Kevin Dyson made the Music City Miracle happen. pic.twitter.com/CKvv1ve6mH
— NFL (@NFL) January 8, 2025
A Philadelphia native, Wycheck played three seasons for the University of Maryland before entering the 1993 NFL Draft, during which Washington selected him in the sixth round. He spent nine of his 11 NFL seasons with the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans franchise. Wycheck made the Pro Bowl three times and ranked fourth all-time in receptions among tight ends (505) when he retired — to go with 5,126 yards and 28 touchdowns.
“My father put his body on the line throughout his career. He loved the game and even more so loved his teammates,” Szabo said. “After retirement, he fought for years to bring light to his post-NFL journey and the fears he had around his struggles and symptoms that he knew whole-heartedly was CTE. He often felt forgotten and ignored, and that his situation was helpless.
“Reflecting back, I wish our family had been educated on the signs and symptoms of CTE. Instead of believing that something was inherently wrong with him, we now know he was doing the best he could as a father and friend under circumstances beyond his control.”
After his playing career, Wycheck spent several years doing color commentary on Titans Radio broadcasts and sports-talk radio in Nashville. He is a member of the Titans’ Ring of Honor and was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.
(Photo: Simon Bruty / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
