PHILADELPHIA -- The mother of a University of Pennsylvania football player found dead earlier this week says he committed suicide.
Katherine Brearley says her son Owen Thomas was very self-directed but that his intensity "spiraled out of control."
Thomas was a defensive end from Allentown who had recently been voted a co-captain of the Quakers. The popular 21-year-old junior was found dead Monday at his off-campus apartment in Philadelphia. He had apparently hanged himself.
Brearley said Tuesday that Thomas "put huge expectations on himself ... and wouldn't let other people give him an appropriate perspective."
Thomas' funeral will be Monday at the Union United Church of Christ in Neffs, Pa., where his father is the senior pastor.
