Jack Pugh, a former tight end on Wisconsin\u2019s football team who stepped away from the sport three years ago citing mental health concerns, has died, the university announced. He was 24.<\/p>\n
Wisconsin issued a post<\/a> Tuesday night on its football program\u2019s X account saying that Pugh had died. Details including cause of death were not given.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Wisconsin Athletics family is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Jack Pugh,\u201d the post said. \u201cJack was a positive light and brought a genuine spirit to our football program. More than that, he cared about people and was loved by his teammates and staff. Jack proudly earned his degree from UW-Madison in 2025 and will forever be remembered and loved.\u201d<\/p>\n Pugh, who was from Columbus, Ohio, redshirted in 2021 before appearing in one game and earning academic All-Big Ten honors in 2022. He announced in an Instagram post in December 2023 that he had decided before that season to medically retire.<\/p>\n \u201cMy physical health was not near perfect, but my mental health was the reason I decided to hang it up,\u201d Pugh said in that Instagram post. \u201cOver years of prolonged depression and substance abuse, I decided I deserved a better life and to finally find happiness. In no way was football the root of these problems, but everything in my life had distracted me for so long to the point I never had prioritized my mental health all along, digging a deeper darker hole.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want to thank the amazing Coaches, Teammates, Friends and Family @badgerfootball has 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 ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Pugh, a former tight end on Wisconsin\u2019s football team who stepped away from the sport three years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[61,331,339,7,116228,49,48,16175,566,996,9,568,991,2785,5183],"class_list":{"0":"post-848699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-big-ten-conference","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jack-pugh","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-football","15":"tag-notable-deaths","16":"tag-oh-state-wire","17":"tag-ohio","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-wi-state-wire","20":"tag-wisconsin","21":"tag-wisconsin-badgers","22":"tag-wisconsin-badgers-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116333643059210331","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848699","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=848699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}