Dave Duerson Bankruptcy: Before Suicide, Bears Star Had Filed In Florida

According to news reports this week, former Bears safety Dave Duerson had filed for bankruptcy in Florida in September, only a few months before committing suicide last Thursday.

Duerson reportedly faced $14.7 million in liabilities, according to the bankruptcy filings. He also claimed $34.6 million in assets, but that was almost exclusively from a judgement in a 2004 lawsuit by his company, Duerson Foods. The judgement still remains uncollected.

Aside from that sum, though, Duerson's personal finances were in a sad state for a two-time Super Bowl winner. The Chicago Tribune has more from the bankruptcy papers:

Duerson's other listed assets include: a Northern Trust checking account with $846, and a 2002 Cadillac Escalade with 140,000 miles, valued at $5,750. ...

Besides [ex-wife]Alicia Duerson's $70,000 claim, creditors with unsecured claims include: the state of Wisconsin, with a $47,315 tax claim; Associated Bank, owed $4 million in a 2006 debt; Bank of America, $23,149 in credit card purchases; Greenline Capital Partners, with a 2006 promissory note of $9 million; and Kenosha Area Business Alliance, $573,502.

The September filing listed Duerson's year-to-date income as $16,800.

In an October filing, Duerson also listed items he had in $379-a-month public storage in Morton Grove: a Chippendale desk purchased new in 1998; a remote-control "high rise bar"; a dismantled 1987 Brunswick pool table; four black metal bar stools and two black directors' chairs.

Duerson's ex-wife has accused him of concealing certain assets, failing to list, for example, his two Super Bowl rings and his trophy for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 1987, as UPI reports. His bankruptcy lawyer told the Tribune that those had been donated to the Dave Duerson Foundation, and were set to be displayed in a sports hall of fame.

Last Thursday, the former Chicago Bear committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. His family donated his brain to Boston University for its study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition caused by repeated brain trauma that has led to depression and suicide in other former players.

Comments

[Sheri Lynn]

03:01 AM on 03/24/2011

I say shame on Alicia Duerson! I guess divorce wasn't enough... she wanted to ruin him totally and demean him further as a man. She probably didn't hesitate to help build the debt that led to the Bankruptcy. But just HAD to have that last jab that ultimately, probably cost him his life

[pearl1977]

12:35 PM on 03/05/2011

Sad Story. As a Bankruptcy lawyer in Bakersfield, California I know the impact that financial stress can have.

Joseph Pearl
Bakersfield Bankruptcy Attorney
http://BankruptcyBakersfield.com

[Laurie Bellx]

11:39 AM on 03/04/2011

Killing himself to be heard
Media coverage of Dave Duerson's suicide hurts prevention
http://www.psychology-advice.net/tag/nfl

[TheSpiderMind]

01:14 PM on 02/23/2011

RiP

[dayzee10]

11:11 AM on 02/23/2011

The NFL is corporate America at it's most visible, but we refuse to see how they operate because we are awash in the sea of idolatry and celebrity worship. The NFL is the first interweave patriotism, capitalism, and religion as the recent Super Bowl extravaganda exemplified and they are the first to abandon their former workers (players not named Aikman, Elway etc.,in other words the stars) ,they are first in line for government welfare(how many stadiums are funded by taxpayers?) and are the first to cry that they are not making enough money. If that isn't corporate America then what is?

[stumanchu35]

09:23 AM on 02/23/2011

2 years after retiring from the NFL, 80% of former players are broke, and have nothing to show for their damaged bodies that they will have for the rest of their lives.

[Subjectivity]

09:06 AM on 02/23/2011

Remind me not to become an NFL player - the money and women are meager.

[ConsensusReality]

08:37 AM on 02/23/2011

It's sad to see any human being come to such a sad end...RIP

[christochristo]

08:22 AM on 02/23/2011

I really don't care...

[Hibernaculum]

08:32 AM on 02/23/2011

And that's why you have 0 fans...

[Widespread Panic]

08:57 AM on 02/23/2011

Exactly.

[oliv04ia]

12:01 PM on 03/06/2011

ditto...

[WonderfulElena]

07:55 AM on 02/23/2011

it sounds more and more like he was in huge debt and had to kill himself and left this message about his brain being damaged by the nfl so his family could sue the nfl. people kill themselves so their families can get insurance money all the time

[WonderfulElena]

07:50 AM on 02/23/2011

they need to study his brain to find out why the heck someone would get themselves into 14 million dollars of debt. he should have stopped spending after he lost the first million

[nellpost]

07:34 AM on 02/23/2011

If he played in the days before improved helmets, brain trauma could certainly play a huge role in mental problems in his later years. God bless him and his family.

[berryessence]

06:52 AM on 02/23/2011

RIP Dave...Damn you were the man on the field

[XFilesTheTruthIsOutThere]

07:15 AM on 02/23/2011

He certainly was!

[WonderfulElena]

04:54 AM on 02/23/2011

instead of killing himself he should have robbed a bank or married a rich old lady

[nellpost]

07:34 AM on 02/23/2011

wonderfulelena: nothing, nothing funny about your post.

[WonderfulElena]

04:53 AM on 02/23/2011

if he had 34 million and 15 million in debts it sounds like he stil has abut 19 million. i would have hung on if i were him

[MNKen]

07:46 AM on 02/23/2011

The judgement for the 34 million had not been collected and you are not him. You have no idea what he was thinking or feeling.