Former NFL player’s death in Richmond ruled a suicide

According to ESPN, Richmond Police have ruled that former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling’s death was a suicide. Easterling was found dead in his Richmond home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. From the ESPN article: Easterling, who helped lead the team’s vaunted defense in the 1970s, was part of a group of […]

April 23, 2012; 9:35 AM • by RVANews staff

From the ESPN article:

Easterling, who helped lead the team’s vaunted defense in the 1970s, was part of a group of seven former players who sued the NFL in Philadelphia in August, claiming the league failed to properly treat players for concussion and tried to conceal for decades any links between football and brain injuries. It was the first potential class-action lawsuit that was filed.

Easterling played for the Falcons from 1972 to 1979, helping lead the team’s “Gritz Blitz” defense in 1977 that set the NFL record for fewest points allowed in a season. After his football career, he went on to start a successful financial services company in Richmond.

“He was a wonderful husband and father,” Mary Ann Easterling said Thursday. “In everything he did, he was a charger. He went full tilt.”