In 2019, while still playing with the Minnesota Wild, J.T. Brown pledged to donate his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation in Boston. He became the second player to do so, following Ben Lovejoy who made the same promise in 2017. Brown, who played with the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2012-2017, just revealed his decision in an interview with TSN.
“I think about my brain health, with the style of game I played,” he said. “I was a small player, stature wise, and played gritty and played with lots of energy and tried to hit everything that moved… I don’t know what the impact of the fighting has been on my brain.