Aldon Smith's family donating his brain to CTE research as attorneys investigate death

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Aldon Smith's brain will be donated by his family to the Boston University CTE Center following his untimely death over the weekend.

The former NFL defensive lineman was 36 when he was found unresponsive in the passenger seat of a friend's car following a day of delivering food to a homeless shelter.

No cause of death was given, but Smith's family has hired attorneys Harry Daniels, Bakari Sellers and Wayne Kendall to investigate Smith's death.

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San Francisco 49ers Aldon Smith runs during practice at the 49ers training facility in Santa Clara, on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. (LiPo Ching/MediaNews Group/Mercury News via Getty Images)

"As with anyone who dies so suddenly at such a young age, we understand that there is a great deal of interest in and speculation about Aldon Smith’s passing and we intend to get to the bottom of it," the attorneys said in a statement released Tuesday. "To that end, we have taken a number of steps including sending his brain to Boston where medical experts will examine it for CTE as well as other damage caused by years of concussions and additional trauma.

"In the meantime we simply ask you to keep Aldon’s family in our prayers and respect their privacy as they struggle to come to grips with this terrible loss."

Just hours before he was found unresponsive, Smith unexpectedly dropped off 10 pizzas at CHAM Deliverance Ministry, a San Jose, California, charity that feeds the homeless.

After dropping off the pizzas, his friend Amir Shirazi drove them to a grocery store and then back to his home. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that he quickly ran inside