Former NFL player Phillip Adams had "unusually severe" chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) when he allegedly killed six people before shooting himself in April in South Carolina.
Boston University's Dr. Ann McKee conducted the brain examination of Adam's brain tissue and determined that it showed significantly dense lesions in both frontal lobes. She said in a news conference on Tuesday that it was abnormally severe of a diagnosis for a person in his 30s.
Adams had suffered multiple injuries and concussions in his six-year NFL career. He was a seventh-round pick out of South Carolina State by the San Francisco 49ers in 2010, and played for five other teams -- the New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Oakland Raiders, New York Jets, and Atlanta Falcons.
The shooting took place in his hometown of Rocky Hill, SC on April 7, when police say he killed Robert Lesslie, a prominent local physician; his wife, Barbara; and two of their grandchildren, Adah, 9, and Noah, 5. Adams also killed two air-conditioning technicians, James Lewis and Robert Shook, whom he confronted at the Lesslies’ house.
McKee said Adams had Stage 2 CTE, which includes symptoms of depression, mood swings, short-term memory loss, and more. She compared his brain to the brain of former NFL player Aaron Hernandez, who was 27-years-old when he died by suicide in 2017 after being convicted of a 2013 murder. Hernandez was found to have Stage 3 CTE after his brain was examined.
“Severe frontal lobe pathology might have contributed to Adams’s behavioral abnormalities, in addition to physical, psychiatric and psychosocial factors,” McKee said. “Theoretically, the combination of poor impulse control, paranoia, poor decision-making, emotional volatility, rage and violent tendencies caused by frontal lobe damage could converge to lower an individual’s threshold for homicidal acts — yet such behaviors are usually multifactorial.”
CTE is a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head traumas that can only be diagnosed after death, according to the Mayo Clinic.
McKee later said that CTE worsens with age, citing that Boston University's CTE center has diagnosed the brain disease in 24 NFL players who died in their 20s and 30s, with most suffering stage 2 CTE.
A statement on behalf of the Adams family was read at the news conference.
"As we process these results we are deeply saddened by the events that occurred on April 7 and we continue to pray for the families of the victims. We are pleased to have a better understanding of the mental turmoil that Phillip was dealing with during the last moments of his life. We cannot say that we are surprised by these results. However it is shocking to hear how severe his condition was."
"After going through medical records through his football career, we do know that he was desperately seeking help from the NFL, but was denied all claims due to his inability to remember things and to handle seemingly simple tasks, such as traveling hours away to see doctors and going through extensive evaluations."
"We hope to bring awareness to this condition so players young and old can understand the risks ... Phillip is not the first to battle with this disease and he will not be the last."
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