Just wondering if there are any examples of professional athletes who have commited suicide after losing in a big game.
I know a lot of them take it pretty hard and comment on how difficult it is to get over it and how sometimes they never get over it but has anyone ever been so distraught as to take their own life?
He didn’t commit suicide, but I’m pretty sure that on a fairly recent Sportscenter interview, Scott Norwood’s life was, for all intents and purposes, ruined.
Correction: During the interview, he intimated that his life was ruined.
That’s who I thought of right away, too, but it was three years later. Alcohol and just plain old depression had plenty of time to work on him. I wonder if any athlete has ever committed suicide in the immediate aftermath of a painful defeat.
If you’re counting Scott Norwood, then you have to count Bill Buckner. He eventually moved out of the state because he couldn’t take the years of constant abuse.
I agree, not exactly what the OP probably had in mind, but maybe the closest thing to it though. 
While it is not a suicide brought on by a big game, Colombian soccer player Andres Escobar was murdered July 2, 1994, a couple of weeks after he scored an own goal that enabled the United States to defeat Colombia in the 1994 World Cup. Apparently, some drug lords had bet pretty heavily on the game, at least that was a theory at the time (I have not followed up on it).
mshar253:
The tasteless joke at the time was that Norwood tried to shoot himself, but missed wide right.
Pro Bowl center Barret Robbins of the Oakland Raiders nearly committed suicide just before Super Bowl XXXVII. He later got into a fight with police in Florida and was shot three time and lived. He’s currently wanted for violating parole from that case.
Sadly, I have researched this subject. The answer to the OP’s question is no, at least if we’re talking about major North American sports. There aren’t any examples of pro-athletes commiting suicide after a big game.
There have been oodles of former athletes who, like Donnie Moore, committed suicide after their glory days had ended. The NFL’s Jim Tyrer is an even sadder case, and there are plenty more for the morbidly curious.
I’m aware of six cases of pro athletes who committed suicide while they were active players: Jeff Alm (NFL), Ricky Berry (NBA), Hugh Casey (MLB), Roman Lyashenko (NHL), Bill Robinzine (NBA), Don Wilson (MLB).
Alm’s is the only case that occurred during a season while he was active. The rest occurred during the offseason.
Wilson’s case was ruled a murder-suicide. He was found dead in his car with the engine running in an attached garage. His wife and kids were found in the house, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Some have suggested it was actually an accident.
My research didn’t include pro wrestlers, but there are of course some very recent examples.
Justin Fashanu was a UK football player who killed himself, partly due to the pressures and abuse he suffered as an openly gay pro-sportsman.
Considering that they are both still alive and never even attempted suicide, I can’t fathom how you would count them.
Other examples in baseball would be Chick Stahl, who (for reasons totally uknown) drank a bottle of acid; and Willard Hershberger, who suffered from severe depression, who either slit his own throat or slit his wrists (I’ve read both.)
Given that professional soccer players I would imagine vastly outnumber any other professional sportsmen (England alone has about 100 professional soccer teams now that some non-league teams are effectively professional) and the only professional soccer player I know of to commit sucide is Justin Fashanu and that was long after his career ended I think that the incidence of sucide in pro-athletes is very low.
Justin Fashanu thoguh is a partciualrly tragic. He was effectively abandoned by his parents age six (along with his brother who also became a famous English soccer player), went onto become one of the first truly top class black British soccer players and probably the only openly gay sportsman of any note.
He would be dead now if Billy Brown hadn’t had a change of heart at the last minute and decided not to shoot him to death.
A quick Google found an ESPN article, from 1998. It does mention Justin Fashanu, among many others.
Hershberger was the one I came in to mention. He was already prone to depression due to unfortunate circumstances then blamed himself for the loss of a game. Three days after that game he was dead at his own hand.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Willard_Hershberger
Cricket has a long history of players and former players commiting suicide.
Silence of the Heart: Cricket Suicides by David Frith is an account of over 100 cricketers who have taken their own lives. Stoddart, Shrewsbury, Gimblett, Robertson-Glasgow, Bairstow, Trott, Iverson, Barnes - all high-profile cricketers who killed themselves.
I looked up the news coverage of Stahl’s death. He had taken over as the Boston manager, and the stress seemed to be overwhelming him. He was reportedly melancholy and despondent, and the article alludes to what might have been another suicide attempt a few weeks earlier. This all took place during spring training.
That article also referenced another case I hadn’t been aware of. Marty Bergen of the Boston Braves, a murder-suicide in January 1900.