Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots tight end who committed suicide in April while serving a life sentence for murder, was found to have one of the most severe forms of C.T.E., the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma that has been found in more than 100 former N.F.L. players.

Hernandez is the latest former N.F.L. player to have committed suicide and then been found with C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, joining Dave Duerson, Junior Seau, Andre Waters, Ray Easterling and Jovan Belcher, among others. Seau and Duerson deliberately shot themselves in the chest so that researchers would be able to examine their brains. Hernandez was found hanging in his prison cell.

Seau, Duerson and Waters were all older than 40, while Hernandez was 27, making him one of the youngest former N.F.L. players to have been found with C.T.E. In July, researchers at Boston University released findings that showed that they had found C.T.E. in the brains of 110 of the 111 former N.F.L. players they had examined...

The findings may help Hernandez’s family if it chooses to file for an award in the class action settlement with the N.F.L.

Players who are younger than 45 when they are found to have C.T.E. can receive as much as $4 million. Those who died after the settlement was approved in April 2015 are not eligible for an award, but Hernandez’s family could argue for an exemption.