COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Days before Ohio State plays in the Big Ten championship game, team buses carried players and coaches to a cathedral where they paid their final respects to a teammate who apparently shot himself in the head after sending a message to his parents saying concussions had addled his mind.
Family members, athletes and coaches visibly grieved as they pulled their coats up tight to their collars to fight off the cold as they left the private funeral of Kosta Karageorge, some with tears in their eyes.
The Buckeyes’ leading rusher, Ezekiel Elliott, was distraught as he remembered the walk-on nose tackle whose casket he carried out of the church.
Karageorge would always say, “‘Yeah, baby! Yeah, baby!’ just before coming out on the field to practice every day,” Elliott said before his voice broke with emotion and he walked away.
Karageorge, 22, was found dead in a trash bin on Sunday. Four days earlier he had disappeared after sending his parents a text message: “I am sorry if I am an embarrassment but these concussions have my head all f—– up.”