Ex-NFL Player Phillip Adams—Who Killed 6 During Rampage—Had Severe CTE Similar To Aaron Hernandez, Doctor Says

Phillip Adams, the former NFL player who shot and killed six people in South Carolina earlier this year, suffered from the debilitating brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a team of Boston University researchers said Tuesday—the latest football player diagnosed with the disease, which can lead to sometimes severe behavioral and mood changes.

KEY FACTS

Dr. Ann McKee, neurologist and director of the CTE Center at Boston University, said Adams’ brain showed signs of Stage 2 CTE during a press conference. McKee said his brain was different from other young players who had been diagnosed with CTE, as it showed “unusually severe” damage in both frontal lobes.

The damage was similar to the brain of Aaron Hernandez, according to McKee, the former New England Patriots player who was convicted of murder in 2015, and later died by suicide in 2017. CTE is a neurodegenerative disease linked to concussions and sub-concussive hits, which puts football players and other athletes who compete in contact sports at risk, and has been associated with cognitive and mood changes, according to McKee.

Adams’ family donated his brain to the Boston University CTE Center following the mass shooting in Rock Hill, South Carolina, in April, after which Adams died by suicide during a standoff with police. Dr. Sabrina Gast, the York County coroner, said during the press conference that the study does not explain why the killings occurred, but “it does give us a small piece of a more complex puzzle that is still under investigation.”

CRUCIAL QUOTE

The Adams family said in a statement read during the press conference they weren’t surprised by the results, but added it was “shocking to hear how severe his condition was” before slamming the NFL. “After going through medical records from his football career, we do know he was desperately seeking help from the NFL, but was denied claims due to his inability to remember things and to handle seemingly simple tasks,” the family alleged. The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.

KEY BACKGROUND

Adams played professional football between 2010 to 2015, and his family said he had a 20-year career playing the sport, according to McKee. On April 7, Adams shot and killed Dr. Robert Lesslie, his wife Barbara Lesslie, and two of their grandchildren, Adah and Noah, in their home in Rock Hill, South Carolina, according to police. Adams also shot and killed two air-conditioning technicians outside of the Lesslie residence, James Lewis, 38, and Robert Shook, 38. Adams was later found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a home on the same street as the Lesslie residence. The killings added even more interest in the potential link between CTE and violence, after Hernandez was found to have severe CTE at the time of his suicide. Junior Seau, a former NFL linebacker, was also suffering from CTE when he died by suicide in 2012, and left a request for his brain to be studied for the disease in his suicide note. Mood changes related to CTE "often involve problems with depression, irritability, loss of motivation, or suicidal thinking or behavior,” according to the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory at Harvard University, while behavioral changes can be seen “as problems with impulse control which can lead to aggressive or violent behaviors, or problems with substance abuse.”

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW

McKee said much still remains unknown about CTE, such as a way to diagnose the disease among living patients. Authorities have also not yet released a motive for the mass shooting.

SURPRISING FACT

In 2017, the BU CTE Center said 110 of the 111 players’ brains they had examined showed signs of the disease, though McKee noted during the press conference most those who had been diagnosed with CTE had not committed violence.