Phillip Adams’ diagnosis part of growing link that ties football, CTE, violent ends
Phillip Adams became part of an ominous trend earlier this year when he fatally shot six people in Rock Hill, S.C., and then committed suicide.
Adams was a former NFL player who violently took lives and then ended his own.
In April the Rock Hill community was left reeling after the mass-shooting of six people, including prominent Dr. Robert Lesslie, his wife and two of his grandchildren. Two men working in the family’s yard also were killed, with one wounded and later dying in the hospital.
Adams was found dead by suicide following a police standoff.
No motive has been determined in the crime.
“The Phillip we know is not a man that is capable of the atrocities he committed .. As the family, we are devastated and confused. We have more questions than answers at this point. We don’t know if football played a role in this drastic chance, but we do know there has to be some catalyst,” Adams’ family said last April in a statement to The Herald.
A disease called CTE may have been that catalyst.
CTE is defined by the Boston University CTE Center as “a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain injury.”
Research has defined two types of presentations of CTE: in one, the initial features develop at a younger age and involve behavioral disturbance, mood disturbance, or both; in the other, the initial presentation develops at an older age and involves cognitive impairment.
Following his autopsy, Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Boston University CTE Center, told reporters Tuesday at a press conference that Adams had “stage two CTE.” McKee said his “frontal lobe pathology” was “abnormally severe.” She compared Adams’ brain injury to that of another late and former NFL player, Aaron Hernandez.
Hernandez and Adams are just two of many similar cases of football players whose symptoms from CTE led to a tragic end.
While not all of the following committed violent crimes, all of their stories ended in suicide.
Aaron Hernandez
In 2015, former New England Patriots Aaron Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison for the killing of Odin Llyod, one of three men he was accused of murdering. Hernandez committed suicide while in prison in 2017. His brain was tested at BU’s CTE Center.
At a press conference in 2017, McKee showed slides that showed ‘significant damage’ to his frontal lobe, which would have impacted Hernandez’s ability to make decisions and moderate behavior. It was startling damage, especially because Hernandez was 27-years-old.
“We can’t take the pathology and explain the behavior,” McKee told reporters at the time. “But we can say collectively, in our collective experience, that individuals with CTE — and CTE of this severity — have difficulty with impulse control, decision-making, inhibition of impulses for aggression, emotional volatility, rage behaviors. We know that collectively.”
Jovan Belcher
On Dec. 1, 2012, Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, fatally shot his 22-year-old girlfriend.
He then returned to the Chiefs’ training facility, and shot himself in the head in front of then-general manager Scott Pioli and then-coach Romeo Crennel, the AP reported.
His autopsy revealed that Belcher had signs of CTE at the time of his death.
Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd, filed a lawsuit alleging that that her son was subjected to “repetitive head trauma,” and that the Chiefs failed to provide adequate medical care.
Dave Duerson
In February 2011, former Chicago Bears star Dave Duerson committed suicide at the age of 50.
Duerson was known to have had at least 10 concussions in his NFL career, according to his family. The New York Times reported that Duerson had expressed concerns about his mental state to his family.
ESPN reported that Duerson had left a note asking that his brain be donated to the NFL’s Brain Bank, which supplies the BU CTE Center with brains for testing. He shot himself in the chest, presumably to leave his brain intact.
“It’s tragic that Dave Duerson took his own life, but it’s very meaningful that he recognized the symptoms of the disorder — it validates this condition,” McKee said at the time. “The likelihood is that if he hadn’t had the CTE, he wouldn’t have developed those symptoms that he was experiencing at the end of his life and perhaps he wouldn’t have been compelled to end his life.”
Junior Seau
On Feb. 17, 2011, Junior Seau, linebacker for the New England Patriots with a decorated career (10-time All Pro, 12-time Pro Bowl selection, and named to the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team), committed suicide.
His brain was tested after his death, with results released in May 2011.
“I think it’s important for everyone to know that Junior did indeed suffer from CTE,” his wife, Gina Seau, told reporters. She said that his family was informed that the CTE had developed from “a lot of head collisions over 20 years of playing in the NFL.”
His death prompted both NFL and the NFL Players Association to make statements that they were committed to funding CTE research.
Tyler Hilinksi
Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinksi committed suicide in 2018 at the age of 21. In a Sports Illustrated Documentary, his family revealed that he had CTE.
“Did football kill Tyler?’‘ his mother, Kym Hilinski says in the documentary. “I don’t think so. Did he get CTE from football? Probably. Was that the only thing that attributed to his death? I don’t know.”
Medical examiners told the family that Tyler had the brain of a 65-year-old at the time of his death.
Studies ongoing
In Oct. 2021, in a profile by the New York Times, former Miami Dolphins Lineman Jonathan Martin said he has pledged his brain to be tested for CTE.
Martin was the center of a 2013 scandal when he left the Dolphins due to “bullying” on the team. A 144-page report described harassment toward Martin and two others.
At the time, Martin said this treatment had caused him emotional distress and said he had attempted suicide twice.
Martin is in ongoing therapy to control his mental health, he said in his recent interview. But he still suspects that CTE from contact injuries has contributed to his condition.
“I don’t know that I have CTE, but I have my suspicions. I do know that I have traumatic brain injury,” he told New York Times reporter Ken Belson.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 1:11 PM.
