Former NFL player Phillip Adams — who shot and killed six people in April before taking his own life — was found to have suffered from stage 2 CTE after having his brain examined by the Boston University CTE Center.
CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is a degenerative brain disease common among football players which has been linked to violent outbursts and mental instability.
The director of the CTE Center — Dr. Ann McKee — said that Adams’s pathology closely resembled that of former New England tight end Aaron Hernandez, and may have contributed to Adams’ “abnormal behaviors.”
“Phillip Adams had an extraordinary amount of CTE pathology in the frontal lobe, the area of the brain behind the forehead. Frontal lobe damage is associated with violent, impulsive or explosive behavior, a ‘short fuse,’ and lack of self-control,” said McKee, chief of neuropathology for the VA Boston Healthcare System and director of the BU CTE Center and VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank. “His CTE pathology might have contributed to his abnormal behaviors, in addition to other physical, psychiatric and psychosocial factors. His predominantly frontal lobe CTE pathology, which resulted in atrophy, or shrinkage, of the brain, was similar in severity to Aaron Hernandez.”
In the town of Rock Hill, South Carolina, Adams killed Dr. Robert Lesslie, his wife Barbara, along with two of their young grandchildren Adah Lesslie and Noah Lesslie. Adams also killed two air conditioning technicians — James Lewis and Robert Shook — before turning the gun on himself in a standoff with police.
“All behavior originates in the brain, and the discovery of the brain disease CTE in Phillip Adams should serve as an urgent call to action to better understand this historically neglected disease,” said Chris Nowinski, PhD, CLF CEO and co-founder. “The idea that playing a sport Adams first enrolled in at seven years old could be the inciting factor leading to six innocent people dying, along with Adams, is a hypothesis we need to explore as we try to prevent these senseless tragedies in the future.”
Adams’ brain was sent to Boston University following his death after his family agreed to have it examined for CTE.
“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,” the family of Phillip Adams said in a statement. “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.”
According to USA TODAY Sports, Adams’ sister said that his behavior “degraded fast” over the past few years.
“His mental health degraded fast and terribly bad,” Lauren Adams told USA TODAY Sports the day after the shootings. “There was unusual behavior. I’m not going to get into all that (symptoms). We definitely did notice signs of mental illness that was extremely concerning, that was not like we had ever seen. … “
“He wasn’t a monster. He was struggling with his mental health.”
Adams was a former NFL defensive back who spent time with the 49ers, Patriots, Seahawks, Raiders, Jets, and Falcons, last playing with Atlanta in 2015.
CTE has become a major issue for the NFL, with a high number of players found to have suffered from brain injury after their deaths. Unfortunately, CTE can only be diagnosed after death.
The aforementioned Hernandez was found to have suffered from CTE after a postmortem brain scan was administered following his 2017 death by suicide. Junior Seau, former San Diego Charger great and Hall of Famer, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the chest in his Oceanside, CA, home in 2012. Seau’s brain was examined for signs of CTE and was found to suffer from abnormalities consistent with the disease.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].