Goalkeeper Robert Enke Dies, Leaves Suicide Note

Sometimes sports news is just terrible. Robert Enke, the goalkeeper for the German Bundesliga's Hannover 96, was killed yesterday when he was hit by a train. Initial reports suggested that Enke committed suicide and those reports were later confirmed by police when they found a suicide note. Authorities have not disclosed the location of the note, but per the Guardian in the UK:

Police said on Wednesday that Enke left behind a suicide note, but would not say where the note was found. Jörg Neblung, a close friend and adviser of Enke, confirmed that the 32-year-old had killed himself. "I can confirm that it was suicide," he said. "Robert took his own life. A press conference in Hanover will reveal more details."

The fact that Enke was tabbed to likely be the starting keeper for the German National Team in next summer's World Cup makes the news no more or less tragic. But it does, perhaps, put the news in some odd sports context to help us digest and compartmentalize the news. That's the thing with sports – it's an escape for so many, but sometimes, especially for those inside the sports world, it's not enough of an escape for whatever problems you have in life, or in your head.

Enke leaves behind his wife Teresa and an eight-month old daughter they adopted. Enke had another daughter, but in 2006, the two-year old died of a rare heart condition. Recently, he had been stricken with a bacterial stomach virus and hadn't played in two months before Sunday's match with Hamburg. Despite being in line for the World Cup, he was not selected to be on the roster for friendlies against Chile and Ivory Coast next week.

But all of that information is clearly circumstantial when trying to find a window into why someone at the top of their profession would do something like this to themselves, and their family. Martin Kind, president of Hannover, told reporters that Enke had been 'unstable' recently, yet teammates and other players seemed justifiably shocked by the news. With something like this, We can never really see it coming, can we?

The website for Hannover is black today, with the message 'Wir trauern um Robert Enke,' translated to mean 'We mourn over Robert Enke.'

There's a lesson to be learned somewhere in this story about the fragility of life, and sports. I wish I knew what that lesson was. And it's unfair without details of the suicide to know what the true circumstances are. But many athletes battle with depression all the time, both publicly in the cases of players in America like Delonte West or Shawn Andrews, and undoubtedly hidden beneath layers of presumed toughness for countless more. Athletes are trained to be winners – to be invincible – but sometimes life doesn't work out that way. Ultimately they are just people with problems like any of us, and Enke's problems got the best of him.

It's a sad day for the Enke family, for Hannover, for sports.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.