{"id":847277,"date":"2026-04-01T14:43:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847277\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:43:17","slug":"former-wisconsin-football-player-jack-pugh-dead-years-after-quitting-the-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847277\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Wisconsin football player Jack Pugh dead, years after quitting the sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Wisconsin tight end Jack Pugh died recently, according to the program.<\/p>\n

Pugh, who spent the 2021-23 seasons with the university before retiring due to mental health concerns, died Monday night at 24 years old, per memorialsource.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d the football team posted to its X account. \u201cMore than that, he cared about people and was loved by teammates and staff. Jack proudly earned his degree from UW-Madison in 2025 and will forever be remembered and loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FormerJack Pugh (center) played for Wisconsin. Facebook \/ Kenna Lyn McClelland<\/p>\n

Pugh, a Columbus, Ohio native, joined the Badgers for the 2021 season as a four-star recruit, according to ESPN\u2019s rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He earned his way onto the team despite not playing football his first two years at Hilliard Bradley High School due to his focus on basketball, per The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pugh did not play his freshman year and suited up just once in the 2022 season, and announced in December 2023 that he opted to \u201cmedically retire\u201d<\/a> before the season began.<\/p>\n

Pugh did not catch a pass in his time with the Big Ten school.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy physical health was not near perfect, but my mental health was the reason I decided to hang it up. Over years of prolonged depression and substance abuse, I decided I deserved a better life and to finally find happiness,\u201d he posted at the time, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.<\/p>\n

\"JackWisconsin announced Pugh\u2019s death Tuesday. Wisconsin Football\/X<\/p>\n

\u201cIn no way was football the root of these problems, but everything in my life had distracted me for so long to the point I didn\u2019t want to be alive for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had prioritized my mental health all along, digging a deeper darker hole. I want to thank the amazing Coaches, Teammates, Friends and Family\u00a0@badgerfootball\u00a0has provided me with over the years for helping me find a life I\u2019m happy and proud of, and to finally create a relationship with God. I\u2019ll never forget the memories. Love y\u2019all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jets running back Braelon Allen, Pugh\u2019s teammate with the Badgers for those three seasons, posted to his Instagram Story the post from Wisconsin announcing the news.<\/p>\n

He also wrote on X on Monday night at 7:54 p.m. ET: \u201cProtect your mental.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Wisconsin tight end Jack Pugh died recently, according to the program. Pugh, who spent the 2021-23 seasons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,440,7,49,48,26391,9,2785],"class_list":{"0":"post-847277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-deaths","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-obits","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-wisconsin-badgers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116329986822588611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}