Former Wisconsin football player, who left the sport amid mental health struggles, dead at 24

Former Wisconsin football player Jack Pugh, who walked away from college football due to mental health struggles, has died, the university announced Tuesday. He was 24. 

Pugh, an Ohio native, was a tight end on the Badgers’ football team from 2021 to 2022. His cause of death was not immediately known. 

“The Wisconsin Athletics family is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Jack Pugh. Jack was a positive light and brought a genuine spirit to our football program. More than that, he cared about people and was loved by his teammates and staff,” the statement read. 

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“Jack proudly earned his degree from UW-Madison in 2025 and will forever be remembered and loved.” 

Pugh redshirted his freshman year and made his debut for Wisconsin in a game against Minnesota the following season. But in December 2023, he announced he was stepping away from the sport because of mental health struggles. 

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“I made a decision before the football season to medically retire, that I haven’t yet formally announced. My physical health wasn’t near perfect, but my mental health was the reason I decided to hang it up,” he wrote in an Instagram post at the time.

“Over years of prolonged depression and substance abuse, I decided I deserved a better life and to finally find happiness. In no way was football the root of these problems, but everything in my life had distracted me for so long to the point I never had prioritized my mental health all along, digging a deeper darker hole.” 

New York Jets running back Braelon Allen, who was Pugh’s teammate during their time at Wisconsin, shared a message on X seemingly in response to news of Pugh’s death.

“Protect your mental,” his post X. 

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