Jordan Devey, the former NFL offensive lineman whose unlikely route from a high-school marching band to a Super Bowl championship became one of football’s quieter success stories, has died aged 38.

Devey died by suicide on Tuesday, according to his family. He is survived by his wife, Linsey, and their four children. A fundraising page established for the family described him as a devoted husband and father who had spent his retirement coaching children and mentoring players at Eagle High School in Idaho. It also disclosed the circumstances of his death, saying: “Tragically, Jordan took his own life, leaving his family to navigate an incredibly difficult and heart-breaking time.”

Linsey Devey marked what would have been the couple’s wedding anniversary with a deeply personal tribute.

“Today would have been our 15th year anniversary,” she wrote. “We have filled the walls of our homes and hearts with countless memories, joys, struggles, and triumphs.

“We brought four beautiful children into this world that have your eyes, freckles, and compassion. You were our hero and our hearts ache in your absence. We love you. We miss you. And, as you said in your last words to me, ‘We’ll talk soon ❤️.’”

Devey’s death has prompted tributes across the football communities he encountered during a career defined less by celebrity than persistence. He was attached to six NFL organisations, appeared in 44 regular season games and made 21 starts between 2014 and 2020. Yet his journey to the league began without a conventional football pedigree.

Raised in American Fork, Utah, Devey stopped playing the sport after junior high because of Osgood-Schlatter disease, a condition which causes pain and inflammation around the knee during adolescence. At American Fork High School, the future 6ft 7in NFL lineman played basketball and marched with the band as a tuba player.

After serving a two-year mission in Costa Rica for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Devey returned to football at Snow College. It was there that he met Linsey and began the rapid ascent which eventually took him to the NFL. Two seasons at Snow earned him an opportunity at Memphis, where he started at left tackle before signing with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2013. Baltimore released him before the regular season, but New England added him to its practice squad.

Devey reached the Patriots’ active roster the following year, appearing seven times and making four starts during the 2014 campaign. New England went on to defeat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX, giving Devey a championship ring less than six years after he had first returned to competitive football. The Patriots then traded him to San Francisco, where he made a career-high nine starts in 15 appearances for the 49ers before spending three seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs. Later spells with the Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills completed a professional career which ended after the 2020 season.

By then, Devey had shared offensive rooms with three generations of leading quarterbacks, protecting Tom Brady in New England, joining Kansas City as Patrick Mahomes entered the league and finishing his career alongside Josh Allen in Buffalo. Football remained part of his life after retirement, but no longer at its centre. Devey settled with his family in Eagle, Idaho, volunteered with his children’s teams and joined the staff at Eagle High School, where he became offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

The Raiders, for whom Devey played in 2019, acknowledged his death with a tribute posted on the organisation’s official social-media account. His other former NFL teams had not issued public statements at the time of writing.

His parents described him not through his football achievements but through the qualities which shaped those relationships, with mother Leslie calling him ‘always energetic, athletic, kind, generous, full of laughs’.

The fundraiser for Linsey and the children similarly remembered Devey as ‘a cherished member of the Eagle community, known for his unwavering dedication to serving others’, and as a coach whom young players regarded as ‘a mentor, role model and friend’.

Amid their grief, Leslie and Kerry Devey have chosen to speak publicly about the mental health struggle they believe their son had concealed. They have also raised the possibility that repeated head impacts during his career contributed to changes they did not recognise at the time.

“We believe that he possibly suffered from CTE,” Leslie said. “We also feel like this was partly why he’s not with us any longer at the age of 38.”

That concern must remain distinct from a diagnosis, however, especially as Devey’s family said the circumstances of his death had left them unable to obtain a definitive answer. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is associated with repeated head impacts and can presently be confirmed only through specialised examination of brain tissue after death, as was the recent case with former Dallas Cowboys D-lineman Marshawn Kneeland, who died by his own hand prior to last season.

“Because of the condition of what happened with his death … we’re not going to be able to test for that and have a definitive answer,” Leslie explained.

For Kerry, those unanswered questions have inevitably turned inward.

“You think you’re strong until something like this happens…and it brings you to your knees,” he said. “It brings in the what-ifs. What if we’d have done something differently? What if we could’ve seen these signs?”

Their decision to discuss his death is intended to give meaning to a part of Devey’s life which even those closest to him did not fully understand. Rather than presenting success, strength or service to others as protection against mental illness, they hope his story encourages people to acknowledge when they are struggling.

“We want people to understand that it’s okay to reach out,” Leslie concluded. “That help is there — and there’s nothing wrong with you for reaching out. You’re not fighting the battle alone.”