Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) has been one of the most recurring injuries in the history of football, and it knows no bounds when it comes to how it can shatter a player's career.
Many have fallen victim to its detrimental symptoms, and many players have continued to suffer from it, leading the NFL to implement rule changes intended to keep it at bay.
With that said, there are players who have suffered greatly from this brain condition post-career, and they find difficulty in noticing the effects it has on the human body.
___
๐๐ญ ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ญ๐๐ญ๐, ๐๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ก๐ ๐ก๐๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ญ๐๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ญ. ๐ ๐ญ๐จ๐ฅ๐ ๐ก๐ข๐ฆ, '๐๐๐ง, ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ ๐จ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ .'"
Welcome to Rock Hill, SC, also known as โFootball Cityโ, a place that proudly cherishes its diverse culture and deep-rooted history.ย Here, you will find many faculties, historic buildings, scenic views, and a community that has prided itself on its ability to produce talented athletes in recent years.
Meanwhile, its crime is ranked as one of the highest among cities in SC, ranging in the 34th percentile (Violent Crimes) and the 52nd percentile (Property Crime).
Out of Rock Hill came Phillip Adams, a former cornerback who had ball skills, but had a short career sidelined by injuries, and led him to retire early in 2015.
___
Phillip Matthew Adams was born into a family which had a rich-history of producing homegrown talents, and Phillip was no exception, as right from the get go he was engrossed in sports and invested his time in studies.
He was always focused on perfecting his grades and polishing his craft, and his teammates and family always said that he overworked himself and had no regard for the state of his body. His brother and sister were always surprised by his work ethic, and said Phillip was always alone, putting in the work.
Amongst his siblings, Phillip was the youngest and the most athletically gifted, but his siblings were also talented when it came to athletics. His brother was an All-ACC wrestler, and his sister played volleyball and basketball, but they never reached the pros or had the apt talent to play alongside the best.
Fortunately for the Adams family, Phillip would end up making the big leagues, and had some merit to his name despite only playing 6 seasons. During his NFL career, he racked up 108 tackles, 5 interceptions, 3 forced fumbles, which is respectable given how many aspiring players fell victim to the vicious crime that ensued in Rock Hill.
__
In his college days, Adams was a standout type of player in the MEAC who was tied for the most interceptions as a junior in 2009, which earned him first-team all-conference honors, an award that many players hold dear to heart.
In his final year in 2009, a tragedy fell upon his family, as his mother became paralyzed after being involved in a car-accident, which was a miracle when considering how things could have been much worse.ย This incident taught Adams to value his family more, and it led him to come to a conclusion that he needed to protect them at all costs.
"๐๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฆ๐๐ค๐๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ซ๐๐๐ข๐๐ญ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐," ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ'๐ฌ ๐๐๐๐ข๐๐๐ง๐ญ.
__
During his NFL career, Phillip was known as a player who would bounce from team to team even if his work-ethic and motivation was high.
Howbeit, this work-ethic of his became his downfall in the end, and we can support this statement with the plethora of injuries that came early on.
In his rookie year with San Francisco, Adams suffered 2 concussions within merely 3 games, and both of these resulted in a compound ankle fracture, which would sideline some players for long periods of time.
However, given his drive, Adams insisted that he would keep on playing and would make a significant impact.
This stint in San Francisco didn't last though, as he was released and was left out in the cold, where he became a player who consistently moved from team to team.
After this unfortunate event, the Patriots signed him, but went as far as to cut him 3 times in a single season due to his injury history and uncanny drive for more production.
The next 4 years went by like a breeze, and while he put up some decent stats across the board, he slowly but surely became more and more disinterested in trying to become something special in the league.
Once he retired in 2015, he moved right back to Rock Hill to coach younger players in order to inspire the next generation of ballers. While Adams' career was cut short, he was willing to make sacrifices as long as he made an impact.
However, what was shocking was the fact that he nearly lost contact with his family completely, and rarely contacted them, even going for months on end without filling them in on how things were going. This went on for the next few years, all the way up to 2019...
This is when things took a turn....
On April 7th of 2021, the York County Police Department reportedly were called at 4:46 by a man, saying he had heard several gun shots being fired near his area, and also explained that he'd seen a man under a black hoodie exiting a house nearby.
He said he saw the man carrying a weapon, a gun to be precise, and likely had come out of the house after shooting people.
While he wasn't identified right away, the man clearly indicated that he had done something terrible, and it was up to the police to find this man and capture him.
What they didn't know was the fact that the perpetrator was none other than ๐๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฉ ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ฌ, former football player who had cut almost all ties and was now a cold murderer.
After the police was notified, they sent out a search-team and looked to find the suspect before he could get away. Unfortunately, it was too late for the victims of this shooting, and he went as far as murdering grandparents and grandchildren alike.
The victims of this event were the Leslie family: 70 year old Robert Leslie; who practiced medicine and lived with his wife Barbara, along with 2 kids Adah (aged 9) and Noah (aged 5), who were cherished by the community collectively.
What followed was a standoff between Phillip and the police at his parents house, where Phillip barricaded himself with his mother who was in shock. Fortunately, he let his mother out of the house after hours of panic, but after this he put a bullet into his head with a .45 caliber.
The fact that makes it all the more chilling is the fact that Phillip had never committed crimes before this incident, and he didn't seem to have any kind of connection to Leslie either.
While we know CTE has some side-effects that can change one's state of mind and psyche, it makes little to no sense how it led him to murder a family brutally without any trace of connection between them.
This may not occur all the time, but there have been a plethora of incidents where CTE has caused players to do things nobody would have expected them to do.
More than ever do we need to focus on the dangers of this problem, and even if it may be difficult, scientists need to find ways to identify this condition, even if it usually is identified after retirement.
This story also teaches us not to overwork ourselves, no matter the sport, as it can lead to severe conditions and put an end to players' careers.
Thanks for reading.