11:28 AM
An autopsy shows that a former football player accused of killing six people in Rock Hill, South Carolina, had a brain disease.
The 20 years that Phillip Adams spent playing football gave rise to a diagnosis of Stage 2 chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
On April 7, Adams killed Robert Lesslie, his wife, Barbara, two of their children, Adah Lesslie and Noah Lesslie, as well as two technicians working at the Lesslie home, James Lewis and Robert S. Adams was found with a gunshot wound to the head. Adams was older than 30.
There are a number of symptoms associated with the disease, including violent mood swings and memory loss.
Most of the football players who died in their 20s and 30s had Stage 2 of the disease, like Adams, according to the director of the center. Stage 4 is the most severe stage and is associated with dementia.
The second stage is associated with progressive cognitive and behavioral abnormality such as aggression, impulsivity, explosivity, paranoia, depression, anxiety, poor executive function and memory loss.
The expert said that Adams' diagnosis was different from the other young players because of the severity of his brain injury.
Adams' family said in a prepared statement that they were surprised by the results and were shocked to learn how bad his condition was.
After going through medical records from his football career, we know that he was desperately seeking help from the NFL but was denied all claims due to his inability to remember things, such as traveling hours away to see doctors and going through extensive evaluations.
There are people who have been exposed to repeated head trauma who have been found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy. A recent study found signs of the disease in over 100 football players.
Adams played for six teams over the course of six seasons. He joined the San Francisco 49ers in 2010 as a seventh-round draft pick out of South Carolina State, and went on to play for New England, Seattle, Oakland, and the New York Jets before finishing his career with the Atlanta Falcons in 2015.
Adams never played for the 49ers again after he suffered an ankle injury as a rookies. He had two concussions in 2012 with the Raiders. He wouldn't have been eligible for testing as part of the settlement because he didn't retire by the time.
Adams' sister told USA Today that her brother's mental health deteriorated fast and terribly bad in recent years, and that the family noticed signs of mental illness, including an escalating temper and personal hygiene neglect.
