 Funeral plans for football great Junior Seau were beginning to take shape Thursday while tributes continued to pour in from friends and strangers alike the day following the former Charger’s death. 
 
 Separate private and public memorial services fit for a hometown hero were being tentatively planned for May 11 and 12 at Oceanside’s New Venture Christian Fellowship and at Oceanside High School, said the church’s pastor and Chargers chaplain Shawn Mitchell. 
 
 The details are still being worked out. 
 
 An autopsy Thursday confirmed Seau died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, the Medical Examiner’s Office said. 
 
 Toxicology tests and microscopic tissue analysis will also be conducted. Test results can take up to 90 days. 
 
 The medical examiner is awaiting the family’s decision regarding whether to donate Seau’s brain to researchers studying repetitive head injuries, authorities said. 
 
 The 43-year-old NFL star was found Wednesday a bedroom in his beachfront home that sits on the south end of The Strand in Oceanside. His girlfriend discovered his body upon returning from the gym and called 911 about 9:35 a.m., police said. 
 
 A gun was found near his body, although no suicide note was discovered on scene. 
 
 He is survived by four children. ||||| AP Images 
 
 Oh man: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Junior Seau, regarded as one of the N.F.L.'s best linebackers over a 20-year career with the San Diego Chargers, the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots, died of a gunshot wound to the chest Wednesday at his home in Oceanside, Calif. He was 43. The Oceanside police said Seau's death was being investigated as a suicide. 
 
 He was found by his girlfriend in a bedroom of his beachfront house Wednesday morning, and a handgun was found near the body, the police said. 
 
 
 
 
 
 This comes on the day Jonathan Vilma was suspended for a year. The general sense among a lot of players is that Vilma got a raw deal. What's fairly clear to me is that football and its surrounding apparatus--the players, the big media, the NFL--aren't really ready to think about all that brain injuies might mean. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Perhaps it's too much to expect them too. Malcolm Gladwell puts the responsibility right where it belongs: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Slate: Should the NFL be banned too? 
 
 Gladwell: As long as the risks are explicit, the players warned, and those injured properly compensated, then I'm not sure we can stop people from playing. A better question is whether it is ethical to WATCH football. That's a harder question. 
 
 
 
 
 
 I'm not so sure that it's hard at all. The answer, at least for those displeased with pro football's response, seems pretty clear. Doing the damn thing is the hard part. 
 
 
 
 
 
 I now know that I have to go. I have known it for a while now. But I have yet to walk away. For me, the hardest portion is living apart--destroying something that binds me to friends and family. With people whom I would not pass another words, I can debate the greatest running back of all time. It's like losing a language. 
 
 
 
 
 
 UPDATE: I was just listening to Chris Berman's response to Seau's death : I was just listening to Chris Berman's response to Seau's death in which he said 
 
 
 
 
 
 No one will ever know what happened on the football field that may have caused what happened today. We have no idea.... 
 
 
 
 
 
 I cut it off once Berman started discussing what Seau meant to a defense. I understand. That's his job. But listening to this made me ill. When Berman started in on tactics, I had that old feeling of Lost Causers discussing "tactics" and flanking at Petersburg and Shiloh. 
 
 
 
 
 
 I'm not here to dictate other people's morality. I'm certainly not here to call for banning of the risky activities of consenting adults. And my moral calculus is my own. Surely it is a man's right to endanger his body, and just as it is my right to decline to watch. The actions of everyone in between are not my consideration. 
 
 
 
 
 
 I'm out. ||||| Junior Seau's death has been ruled a suicide by the San Diego County medical examiner's office. 
 
 A football with Junior Seau's number sits in front of a memorial in the driveway of the house of former NFL star Junior Seau Thursday, May 3, 2012, in Oceanside, Calif. Seau's death in Oceanside, in... (Associated Press) 
 
 San Diego Chargers fan April Court puts flowers next to balloons with Junior Seau's #55 at a memorial in the driveway of the house of former NFL star Junior Seau Thursday, May 3, 2012, in Oceanside, Calif.... (Associated Press) 
 
 A San Diego Chargers #55 jersey sits in the foreground as fans look over a memorial in driveway of former NFL star Junior Seau's house, Thursday, May 3, 2012, in Oceanside, Calif. Seau's death in Oceanside,... (Associated Press) 
 
 San Diego Chargers fan Dennis Telles bows down in front of a memorial in the driveway of the house of former NFL star Junior Seau Thursday, May 3, 2012, in Oceanside, Calif. Seau's death stunned the region... (Associated Press) 
 
 San Diego Chargers fan Jerry Lopez looks over a memorial set-up in the driveway of the house of former NFL star Junior Seau Thursday, May 3, 2012, in Oceanside, Calif. Seau's apparent suicide stunned... (Associated Press) 
 
 An autopsy Thursday confirmed that the former NFL linebacker died of a gunshot wound to the chest, the medical examiner's office said. 
 
 Officials said they were awaiting a decision by the family on whether to turn over Seau's brain to unidentified outside researchers for study. 
 
 Seau died Wednesday in his home in suburban Oceanside. 
 
 Police Chief Frank McCoy said Seau's girlfriend reported finding him unconscious with a gunshot wound to the chest and lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful. A gun was found near him, McCoy said. Police said no suicide note was found and they didn't immediately know who the gun was registered to. 
 
 Seau's ex-wife, Gina, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Seau sustained concussions during his 20-year career. She said she didn't know if the effects of concussions contributed to Seau's death. Seau starred with his hometown San Diego Chargers for 13 years before playing with the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots. 
 
 Seau's death follows the suicide last year of former Chicago Bears player Dave Duerson, who also shot himself in the chest. 
 
 Duerson's family has filed a wrongful death suit against the NFL, claiming the league didn't do enough to prevent or treat concussions that severely damaged Duerson's brain before he died in in February 2011. 
 
 Former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling, who had joined in a concussion-related lawsuit against the league _ one of dozens filed in the last year _ died last month at age 62. His wife has said he suffered from depression and dementia after taking years of hits. 
 
 Seau is not known to have been a plaintiff in the concussion litigation.
– The medical examiner in San Diego confirmed today that Junior Seau committed suicide with a gunshot to the chest, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. The family has not decided yet whether to donate his brain to researchers to see if he suffered damage from football. Seau's former wife told the AP that he sustained concussions as a player, but she didn't know whether they contributed to his death. The suicide, though, is enough for Ta-Nehisi Coates to call it quits as a longtime football fan. "I'm not here to dictate other people's morality," he writes in the Atlantic. "I'm certainly not here to call for banning of the risky activities of consenting adults." But he says it's clear that football isn't ready to confront what's happening to its players. "I'm out." (Click to read another writer's view that this could become a common refrain.)