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 (sport), goal. Unqualified, Football (word), the word ''football'' normally means the form of football tha ...

player who was a center in 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 ma ...

(NFL). 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 rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most o ...

for the

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

. He was a first-team all-conference selection in the

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

in 2014. Tuerk was selected in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

. 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) West division, and play th ...

Early years

A native of Trabuco Canyon, California, 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 research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Provide ...

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 in ...

, 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 is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping event ...

. Regarded as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Tuerk was listed as the No. 7 offensive tackle prospect in his class.

College career

In his

true freshman Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

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 ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fo ...

, 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). 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 include ...

''. 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 also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. ...

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 in which the trainee presses a weight upwards while lying on a weight training bench. Although the bench press is a full-body exercise, the muscles primarily used are the pectorali ...

test. He was drafted by the

in the third round, 66th overall, in the 2016 NFL Draft. 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 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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division ...

, 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 encompasses 460,000 acres (), mostly of chaparral, with a few riparian areas. A warm dry mediterranean climate prevails over the forest. It is the southernmost U.S. National Forest of California. It is administered by th ...

. 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'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' 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. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

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 worse o ...

(CTE) Center. She said: "That was very important to us, because we feel that CTE probably had some impact on Max". A memorial service was held for Tuerk's friends and family on a beach near his home on Saturday, June 27, 2020, exactly 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 Players of American football from California San Diego Chargers players Sportspeople from Orange County, California USC Trojans football players Deaths from cardiomyopathy