When Mitch Morse made the decision to walk away from the NFL, it wasn’t a decision he regretted. After a decade in the sport, he wanted to spend time with his family, with his wife, his children. Little did he know that the same decision would give him an invaluable year with one of the most special people in his life: his little brother. 

A little over a year after that decision, in a heartbreaking update, Morse revealed his younger brother Robbie had passed away. 

“Last week, we lost my brother Robbie at the age of 30,” he wrote on Instagram on October 5. “Robbie’s life was unique, and at times incredibly difficult. But through all of it, he was surrounded by family and friends who loved him profoundly. As we grieve the loss of a son, a brother, and someone who has been a part of our lives for the last three decades, we also find peace in knowing that the physical shackles of this life no longer hold him. Robbie is free. He is whole. And he is home with our Lord. We love you, Robbo. Rest easy, buddy.”

Robbie’s life changed before he was old enough to crawl. At just four months old, he suffered severe brain trauma while in a babysitter’s care, and doctors identified a bilateral subdural hematoma, an injury consistent with an infant who had been violently shaken.

The babysitter, then 20, told police she shook him because he would not stop crying. She eventually accepted a plea deal and avoided prison time. However, for Robbie, the damage was permanent, leaving him with serious intellectual and physical disabilities for the rest of his life.

Most families would have been consumed by anger. Kevin, the boys’ father, said he was not. According to him, friends assumed he would be furious, yet that rage never arrived. Whenever the babysitter crossed his mind, what he felt was pity, not hatred.

“There’s never been a moment that we’ve thought about any kind of retribution. Not one moment,” Kevin said. “Every friend of mine would have told you, ‘Well, I thought he would go over there and kill her. Literally.’ But [that feeling] never came out, it just went away. This was just about Robbie and Mitch, and that was a complete waste of emotion. It was time to focus, and that’s what we did.”

And Mitch made sure he made the most of his time with Robbie, even if it meant he wouldn’t have a childhood like most children. In a 2019 interview with The Buffalo News, he described how much Robbie kept him grounded, and his latest post circles back to that same story.

Growing up, Mitch quickly learned that Robbie’s needs came first, simply because they had to. He never resented it.

“There were some really tough days that molded us as people, molded us as a family, brought us tighter together,” he told The Buffalo News in 2019. “And absolutely, there was no chance in hell I was going to be an extra burden on my family. That was the last thing I wanted to do.”

In fact, Mitch would be a significant part of his younger brother’s life, as the former Chiefs center’s wife Caitlin Morse recalled. 

“I opened my blinds and I see Mitch like running full speed down the street pushing Robbie in his wheelchair and they’re both just laughing hysterically and that was the first time I’d ever seen Robbie. I grew up kind of right over that hill over there.”

Even when Mitch moved away to play football in Missouri, making the SEC Academic Honor Roll, and then on to the NFL, his brother was right there cheering for him. Although Robbie didn’t understand exactly what Mitch was, he would support his brother, as his caretaker, Mia Spiller, put Robbie in front of the television as Mitch’s name was announced. 

In the larger picture, his relationship with Robbie defined the person he became, right through college to the NFL. Mitch was defined as a leader in every time he was in, defining himself with ‘dad energy,’ as Maddy Glab, a senior team reporter who has known him for a while, put it. 

Mitch would step up for the team whenever they needed him, and Glab said it best when she wrote, “One thing you can also bet on Morse for is being the good face in the bad or stepping up to a challenge and facing it head on when it’s hard for others. Morse was one of the players to speak up in the locker room and help decide it was best to not continue the game when Damar Hamlin suffered his cardiac arrest event last season.”

That was one of the reasons why when the news broke, former teammates and the Bills have offered their condolences.

Mitch Trubisky was among those who reached out with a message of support. The former Bills quarterback, who now plays for the Tennessee Titans, shared a heartfelt message for his former teammate. “Sending love and prayers your way, brother! 🙏🙏❤️❤️.”

The Buffalo Bills also showed their support through their official Instagram account. The team sent a message to the player and his family, writing, “Sending love to you and your family. ❤️💙.”

The message showed that the organization was standing with him during a difficult moment.

Former Bills star Eric Wood also took a moment to offer his support. “Continuing to pray for you and your family, brother! 🙏,” Wood wrote. His message added to the growing number of people from the Bills community reaching out.

The Jacksonville Jaguars joined the messages of support as well. “Sending love to your family 🤍,” the team’s official account commented.  

Justin Britt, who played with Morse at the University of Missouri, also shared an emotional message.

“Love you, brother. Prayers to your family. I know you were the best big brother. 🕊️,” the former NFL center wrote, showing that the support extended beyond former teammates and into Trubisky’s college football family.

For a man who stepped away from the game in March 2025, it is a reminder that the people he played with are still standing beside him.