John Brenkus, host and co-creator of the “Sport Science” from ESPN, died on Saturday, in keeping with an announcement on his account X Monday evening. He was 54 years previous.
The profitable host of the Emmy Award needed to take care of despair, the assertion stated.
“John misplaced his struggle with this horrible illness on Might 31, 2025,” he learn the submit. “His household household and pals are asking for confidentiality at the moment and encourages anybody who’s fighting despair to ask for assist.”
Brenkus was additionally the founding father of Brinx.television and co-founder of the essential productions.
Brenkus opened about despair and suicide try to Marcellus Wiley, ESPN colleague and former NFL participant in January 2023. He stated that when he lived in Park Metropolis, Utah, after he offered his firm and “Sport’s Science”, he felt remoted and spiral in a “despair”.
“I dedicated suicide,” Brenkus stated. I used to be able to do it. “
Brenkus credited his canine, Zeplin, together with his rescue, pulling his denims and eradicating him from his “suicide funk”. The sports activities host then defined to see extra psychologists and psychiatrists attempting to obtain assist, till a physician from Virginia helped him discover the “proper manner”.
“I’ve by no means been depressed since then, a day of my life, from that second earlier than,” Brenkus stated at the moment.
Wiley reposted the announcement of Brenkus’s demise, writing “RIP” with prayer and coronary heart.
Brenkus’s “Sport Science” collection goals to find “the largest myths and mysteries of sport, utilizing the newest know-how to measure the impulse, rubbing and the legal guidelines of gravity,” describes ESPN on his web site. The collection gained six Emmy prizes, first talking to Fox Sports activities in 2007 earlier than transferring to ESPN.
In an ESPN tribute, Brenkus was described as “an innovator, an animator and an educator”, which might be missed by many.
Should you or somebody you understand are in disaster, name 988 to achieve the suicide and disaster rescue line. You can too name the community, beforehand often called the nationwide suicide prevention lifelines, at 800-273-8255Textual content house to 741741 or go to Spoyofsuicide.com/sources for added sources.