Nick Buoniconti made a surprising revelation just before he was to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001: He was so distressed at being traded from his hometown Boston Patriots to the Miami Dolphins that he turned in his retirement papers. It was time, he had decided, to put his law degree to use. It was the kind of admission that elicited one response then, a different response now.

Buoniconti, 78, died Tuesday night, ending a years-long struggle with dementia and the likelihood of CTE caused by an estimated half-million hits to the head suffered during a football career that began at age 9 and continued until he retired from the Dolphins in 1976 at age 36. He had been admitted to a hospice facility this week.