Dave Duerson, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Chicago Bears and New York Giants, tragically chose to take his own life last week.

But when the 50-year-old former NFL safety and successful entrepreneur shot himself in the chest, there was another purpose: so that his brain could be donated to Boston University researchers and studied to assess the life-long neurological effects of playing in the National Football League.

For sure, it has been an incredibly enlightening year in the NFL with regards to the present-day and long-term consequences of concussions and similar traumatic brain injuries caused on the gridiron. Duerson, cognizant of and confident that he was suffering from the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy — a debilitating brain injury that has stricken many current and former football players, from college to the pros — texted family members only hours before taking his own life, imploring them to have his brain donated to those who can study it for evidence of the condition.

In fact, when police arrived at Duerson’s apartment, they found a hand-written note: “PLEASE, SEE THAT MY BRAIN IS GIVEN TO THE NFL’S BRAIN BANK.”

More specifically, that would be the team headed by Chris Nowinski, co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University’s School of Medicine. Last April, after years of denials and side-stepping on the effects of concussions on football players, the NFL finally ponied up $1 million to the center in the hopes of accelerating research into a condition that was long associated with punch-drunk ex-boxers. More recently, CTE has been connected to athletes ranging from 21-year-old college football stars to baseball great Lou Gehrig.

And while it’s true that are any number of complicated reasons why Duerson took his own life — it has been reported that he recently filed for bankruptcy — Duerson wanted to be sure that some good came from his death. Researchers can continue to make progress in studying what a lifetime of hits to the head — each around 20 g’s of force, on average — can do to elite football players, often revered in their playing days yet forgotten upon retirement, when the lasting neurological effects finally start to show their presence.

But this is where we are with pro football, in an era where players are preemptivelydonating their brains to science, like former Chicago Bears quarterback (and Duerson teammate) Jim McMahon. Football is an inherently violent sport and perhaps always will be so, but with more research into CTE, as well as more study and development into safer helmets, we’ll at least be more educated and aware when we see players knocking helmets around on Sunday afternoon.

Photo: AP/File

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