Episode #7 / 2021_12_27

DAVID MUIR: We're going to move on to the other news this evening, and to the autopsy tonight on former NFL player, Phillip Adams. That autopsy now revealing he was suffering from an unusually severe form of brain disease, CTE, when police say he killed a prominent doctor, his wife, and four others before taking his own life. Here's Steve Osunsami.

STEVE OSUNSAMI: A medical examiner is confirming suspicions tonight, and helping to answer why this former NFL cornerback killed six people, according to police, and then killed himself in April.

STEVE OSUNSAMI: In the shocking mass murder, Phillip Adams killed Dr. Robert Leslie, a well-known local physician, killed the doctor's wife, two of their grandchildren, and two workers outside their South Carolina home.

Dr. Ann McKee who examined Adams’brain is blaming CTE, a degenerative brain disease saying that this case was unusually severe, Stage Two, where a patient is often aggressive, explosive or paranoid. She says his brain looked a lot like the brain of Aaron Hernandez, the former NFL tight end, who was convicted of murder and died by suicide in prison.

“We are finding some comfort in the CTE results, and the explanation they provide for the irrational behaviors pertaining to this tragedy.”

STEVE OSUNSAMI: CTE is found in people with a history of head trauma, and can only be officially diagnosed when a person is dead. Tonight Adams joins a growing list of former NFL players who struggled with the disease.

At the time of the killings, Adams’father told WCNC in Charlotte that he blamed his son's football career.

“I think the football messed him up.”

Adams was just 32 years old when he died, had played in nearly 80 NFL games over six seasons, and his family says that he struggled with injuries his entire career. David.

DAVID MUIR: Steve Osunsami tonight. Thank you, Steve.