Tyler Jordan Sash (May 27, 1988 – September 8, 2015) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and 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. ...

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 ...

(NFL). He was drafted by the Giants in the sixth round of the

2011 NFL Draft The 2011 NFL Draft was the 76th installment of the annual NFL Draft, where the franchises of the National Football League select newly eligible football players. Like the 2010 draft, the 2011 draft was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York C ...

College career

Sash played safety while with the

Iowa Hawkeyes The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 22 sports, 8 for men and 14 for women; a 15th women's sport will be added in 2023. The teams partici ...

. He had 13 career interceptions for the Hawkeyes, which was five shy of the school record for career interceptions, originally set by

Nile Kinnick Nile Clarke Kinnick Jr. (July 9, 1918 – June 2, 1943) was an American naval aviator, law student, and college football player at the University of Iowa. He won the 1939 Heisman Trophy and was a consensus All-American. He died during a trainin ...

from 1937 to 1939. He holds the Iowa record for career interception return yards with 392, a mark which also ranks fifth in Big Ten history. Sash was named to the 2010 preseason

Lott Trophy The Lott IMPACT Trophy is presented annually to the college football defensive IMPACT player of the year. IMPACT is an acronym for: Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community, and Tenacity. The award purports to equally recognize the ...

watchlist, a trophy named in honor of former college and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott and presented annually to the college football defensive player of the year. He was also named to the 2010 preseason

Bronko Nagurski Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski (November 3, 1908 – January 7, 1990) was a Canadian-born professional American football player in the National Football League (NFL), renowned for his strength and size. Nagurski was also a successful professional w ...

watch list, awarded annually by the

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

to the nation's best defensive player.

Professional career

On January 13, 2011, Sash decided to forgo his senior season to make himself eligible for the

. He was selected in the sixth round by the

and was a member of the Super Bowl XLVI championship squad. In July 2012, he was suspended for four games by the NFL after testing positive for

Adderall Adderall and Mydayis are trade names for a combination drug called mixed amphetamine salts containing four salts of amphetamine. The mixture is composed of equal parts racemic amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which produces a (3:1) ratio bet ...

, which is on the league's list of banned substances. Sash said in a statement that he took the drug legally and "under a doctor's care for an anxiety condition" to help him with public speaking. Sash was cut from the New York Giants on August 31, 2013.

Death

On September 8, 2015, Sash was found dead in his

Oskaloosa, Iowa Oskaloosa is a city in, and the county seat of, Mahaska County, Iowa, United States. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Oskaloosa was a national center of bituminous coal mining. The population was 11,558 in the 2020 U.S. Cens ...

, home around 8 a.m. local time. He was 27. The autopsy report concluded that his death was caused by a mixture of drugs. On January 26, 2016, five months after his death, Sash's family released the results of testing performed on his brain, confirming that he was suffering from stage 2

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), a degenerative brain disease caused by head injuries, at the time of his death.

References

External links

New York Giants bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sash, Tyler 1988 births 2015 deaths Drug-related deaths in Iowa People from Oskaloosa, Iowa Players of American football from Iowa American football players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy American football safeties Iowa Hawkeyes football players New York Giants players