Brain Injuries and Unimaginable Loss: The Phillip Adams story
The tragic story of Philip Adams, a former NFL player, serves as a poignant reminder of the hidden consequences of sports injuries, particularly in relation to mental health and brain trauma. On April 7, 2021, the small community of Rock Hill, South Carolina, was rocked by a horrific shooting that left six people dead, including respected physician Dr. Robert Leslie and his family. As the events unfolded, it became clear that Adams, once a celebrated athlete, had suffered from severe mental health issues attributed to repeated concussions and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). This episode delves into how a promising sports career transformed into a tale of tragic decline, ultimately leading to a violent outburst that shocked a community.
Through an exploration of Adams' life, the podcast highlights the stark contrast between his past as a hardworking and respected player and his later struggles with mental illness. It discusses the pressures athletes face to return to the game after head injuries and how these pressures can lead to devastating consequences. The story is not just about Adams; it also focuses on the lives of those he affected, shedding light on the legacies of Dr. Leslie and his family, who were beloved in their community. Their kindness and dedication to service were evident through their actions, leaving a profound impact that continues to be felt even after their tragic deaths.
Listeners are invited to reflect on the broader implications of sports culture, mental health, and the urgent need for a more compassionate approach to athlete care. The episode emphasizes the importance of recognizing the signs of mental distress and the need for systemic changes in how we address concussions and their aftermath in professional sports. Ultimately, it stitches together a narrative that is as much about community healing as it is about the personal battles faced by those like Philip Adams.
- APNews: "Authorities: NFL player Phillip Adams killed 5, then himself"
- BU CTE Center: Ex-NFL player Phillip Adams had stage 2 CTE when he killed six people in April - Concussion Legacy Foundation
- Ex-NFL player Phillip Adams who killed 6 people had CTE, doctors say : NPR
- NBCNews.com: Former NFL player Phillip Adams had CTE at time of South Carolina rampage that killed 6, officials reveal
- One year later: Families remember Rock Hill shooting victims | wcnc.com
- Phillip Adams (American football) - Wikipedia
- Police report reveals no clear motive for shooting involving ex-NFL player Phillip Adams - ESPN
- New York Times: "The Mystery of Why a Foundering Football Player Killed a Family"
Judy
Foreign welcome to Fangirl Crime.
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I'm Judy and what I'm about to tell you is the story of how a six year NFL veteran's struggle with brain trauma led to an unthinkable tragedy in 2021.
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Former defensive back Philip Adams shocked a small South Carolina community and the entire sports world.
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Today we'll explore how repeated concussions and CTE might have transformed a professional athlete into someone his own family barely recognized.
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But before we dive in, I need to warn you this episode contains discussions of violence, suicide and mental health issues that might be difficult for some listeners.
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Please take care of yourself first.
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It's April 7, 2021 in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
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The clock reads 4:45pm When a 911 dispatcher receives a call that will haunt her for the rest of her.
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On the other end is 38 year old Robert Shook, an H VAC technician who's been mortally wounded.
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Despite his injuries, he manages to stay eerily calm, giving clear directions to the address where he and his co worker have been shot.
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When first responders arrive at the home of Dr.
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Robert Leslie, they discover a scene so horrific that even veteran officers struggle to process it.
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Inside, they find six victims of a brutal attack.
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Dr.
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Leslie, his wife Barbara, their two grandchildren, 9 year old Ada and 5 year old Noah and James Lewis, Robert Shook's 38 year old coworker, are already dead.
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Shook, who made that incredible 911 call, will fight for his life, but ultimately succumb to his injuries.
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Three days later, the shooter, a former NFL defensive back named Philip Adams.
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But y'all, this isn't your typical story of an athlete who lost his way.
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This is about something much darker, much more complex, and honestly, much more terrifying.
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Because to understand what happened that April day, we need to understand how a respected athlete, a hometown hero, transformed into someone his own family couldn't even recognize.
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Y'all, today we're going to Rock Hill, South Carolina.
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And if you follow football deeply, you probably know Rock Hill as Football City, USA.
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But after April 7, 2021, this tight knit community of 75,000 people would become known for something far darker.
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But before I tell you what happened that day, I need you to understand who Dr.
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Robert Leslie was to this community.
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Because if you talk to anyone in Rock Hill, they'll tell you that if Philip Adams was one of their football success stories, Dr.
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Leslie was their healing hands.
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For over 40 years, Dr.
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Leslie wasn't just any doctor.
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He was the doctor that everyone in Rock Hill trusted.
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He kept this little notebook where he'd Write down details about his patients, their kids names, their hobbies, their worries.
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During COVID he personally called elderly patients just to check on them.
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Y'all, this is the kind of doctor who would actually remember your name when you came in.
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His wife, Barbara, she matched him in every way when it came to serving their community.
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She was this amazing former teacher who ran this incredible youth literacy program at their church.
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And get this, she had this massive vegetable garden and she would personally deliver fresh produce to elderly neighbors and families in need.
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And their grandkids, 9 year old Ada and 5 year old Noah, were these bright lights in the community.
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Ada was already following in her grandmother's footsteps, helping with that garden and showing this amazing talent for growing sunflowers.
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Noah, at just five years old, he was already telling everyone he wanted to be a doctor, just like papa.
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Now, let me tell you about Philip Adams, because this isn't your typical story of an athlete gone wrong.
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Growing up in Rock Hill, everyone knew Philip as this respectful, hard working kid.
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His high school coaches, they all remember him as being incredibly coachable and dedicated.
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In 2010, the San Francisco 49ers selected Adams in the seventh round of the NFL Draft.
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While not a first round pick, making it to the NFL at all was a dream come true for the kid from Rock Hill.
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His father, Alonzo Adams, later recalled how proud the family was on draft day.
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They believed Philip was living proof that hard work and determination could make dreams reality.
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Adams NFL career was what scouts called journeyman, steady but not spectacular.
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Over six seasons, he played for six different teams.
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The 49ers, Patriots, Raiders, Seat, Seahawks, jets, and finally the Falcons.
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He appeared in 78 games, recording 128 tackles and five interceptions.
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But it's what happened during those games that would later prove crucial to understanding this case.
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In 2012, while playing for the Raiders, Adams suffered two concussions within three games.
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This was during a transitional period in the NFL's approach to head injuries.
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The league had implemented its first concussion protocols in 2009, but they weren't nearly as comprehensive as today's standards.
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Players often felt pressure to shake it off and get back on the field.
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Former teammates started noticing changes in Adams after these injuries.
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The quiet, respectful player became increasingly withdrawn.
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He struggled with insomnia and complained of severe headaches.
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One teammate speaking anonymously after the tragedy, recalled Adams becoming paranoid about people's intentions and struggling to maintain close relationships.
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After retiring from the NFL in 2016, Adams's behavior became increasingly erratic.
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He filed for disability benefits, citing short term memory loss, depression and anxiety.
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That made it impossible to hold a job despite his NFL career.
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He moved back in with his father in Rock Hill, where his mental state continued to deteriorate.
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And y'all, this is where things get really dark.
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Because on April 7, 2021, Dr.
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Leslie was seeing patients at his clinic just like any other Wednesday.
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Barbara was at home with Ada and Noah, who were visiting during their spring break.
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And there were these two H VAC technicians at the house.
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James Lewis and Robert Shook, just doing routine work on the air conditioning system.
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James Lewis was 38, this amazing single dad of three young kids.
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He coached his son's baseball team and had just started college funds for his daughters.
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Robert Shook, also 38, was married with three kids of his own.
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He was known for never turning down an overtime shift if it meant providing better opportunities for his family.
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Now, over at Philip Adams house, things were different.
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In the months leading up to this day, people who knew him had noticed some seriously concerning changes.
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He'd been living with his father in this modest home less than a mile from the Leslie's.
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But his life was nothing like his NFL days.
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Former teammates who visited him in Rock Hill, they barely recognized the person he'd become, that quiet, strategic player they'd known.
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He.
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He transformed into someone who could barely maintain a conversation.
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He would pace for hours in his father's yard, just muttering to himself.
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Neighbors reported seeing him at these weird hours, sometimes just standing motionless in his driveway at 3 in the morning, staring into nothing.
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And here's what's really haunting his medical records showed these increasingly desperate attempts to get help.
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He'd been to multiple neurologists complaining about these severe headaches and memory issues.
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Just three weeks before that Wednesday, three weeks, y'all, he had an appointment where he described feeling like his head was disconnected from his body.
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The doctor prescribed medication, but toxicology reports would later show he wasn't taking it.
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And get this.
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He'd actually been to Dr.
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Leslie's practice twice in 2020 seeking treatment for prescription medication dependency.
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Dr.
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Leslie, being the caring physician he was, had worked with Adams to develop this treatment plan.
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But Adams had stopped showing up for appointments, and there was no indication of any conflict between them.
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So on that Wednesday afternoon at 4:45pm Robert Shook somehow manages to make a 911 call.
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He's critically wounded, but he still has the presence of mind to call both 911 and his supervisor at GSM Services.
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The dispatcher later said it was one of the most heart wrenching calls of her career.
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Because Shook maintained this incredible professional calm Even while gravely injured, giving clear directions to the house and warning about an active shooter.
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When police arrive at the Leslie home, they're faced with an impossible situation.
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Many of them knew Dr.
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Leslie personally.
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He'd treated their colleagues in the ER.
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Some had kids who went to school with Adah and Noah.
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Officer James Brown, one of the first responders, Dr.
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Leslie had treated him for a workplace injury just two weeks earlier.
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Now he's performing CPR on the doctor who helped him, the paramedics who arrived minutes later.
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Several of them had worked with Dr.
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Leslie in the ER.
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One paramedic, Sarah Martinez, had to step aside when she recognized Noah.
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He'd been in her Sunday school class.
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But even through their personal grief, these first responders maintained their professionalism in what had to be one of the hardest calls of their careers.
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As news of the shooting spread, local hospitals initiated mass casualty protocols, only to face this heartbreaking reality that there would be no survivors to treat.
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Except Robert Shook.
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The emergency room where Dr.
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Leslie had worked for so many years became this waiting room for his own family members as they arrived, many in complete disbelief that this could be happening in Rock Hill now.
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During the investigation that followed, police discovered something chilling.
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Adams had been tracking Dr.
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Leslie's movements for several days.
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Security footage from nearby businesses showed his truck passing by the medical practice multiple times.
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He'd even attended the same church service as the Leslies the previous Sunday, though they hadn't interacted.
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The investigation noted that Adams had cleaned and staged his weapons beforehand, suggesting premeditation.
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He'd also turned off his phone and done nothing to hide his identity, leading investigators to believe he never intended to escape.
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Y'all, this is scary.
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Here is what everyone says is a good man, and he is ruthlessly planning on going on a one way crime rampage.
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What other person in my community might be feeling the same way?
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Scary.
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But here's where it gets even more complex, y'all.
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The investigation revealed that in the months before the shooting, Adam's behavior had become increasingly erratic.
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He'd tried to maintain some connection to football by helping coach at a local high school, but his behavior made that impossible.
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He'd show up late, forget basic drills he'd performed thousands of times, and sometimes leave mid practice without explanation.
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The head coach, who'd known Adams since his own high school days, finally had to ask him to stop coming around.
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He'd attempted to start several businesses in Rock Hill.
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A gym, a nutrition supplement store, and a sports training facility for kids.
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All failed within months because he couldn't keep track of basic paperwork.
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Or remember client appointments.
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His disability application to the NFL filed in 2016 painted this devastating picture.
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He described being unable to remember his kids birthdays, getting lost in familiar neighborhoods, and experiencing these intense rage episodes over minor frustrations.
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So at the same time, Adams is having a hard time planning his day.
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He could plan a mass murder, but back to the crime.
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After an hours long manhunt, police surrounded Adams at his father's house.
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Before they could take him into custody, he took his own life.
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He was 32 years old.
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The standoff at Adams father's house lasted nearly eight hours.
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Crisis negotiators made multiple attempts to contact him.
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His father, Alonzo Adams, tried desperately to reach him by phone.
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When police finally entered, they found evidence that Adams had been writing in journals documenting his deteriorating mental state.
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The entries became increasingly paranoid and confused over time, with the final entry simply reading I am not here.
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After Adams took his own Life, Adam, Dr.
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Ann McKee, a leading researcher in sports related brain injuries, examined his brain at Boston University's CTE Center.
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And y'all.
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The results were devastating.
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Adams had Stage 2 CTE with severe damage to his frontal lobe.
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That's the part of the brain responsible for impulse control, judgment and emotional regulation.
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Let me break down what CTE actually is because this is crucial to understanding this case.
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Chronic Traumatic encephalopathy is this progressive brain condition caused by repeated head trauma.
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It can currently only be definitively diagnosed after death, which makes it particularly challenging to study and treat.
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What we do know is that it causes the buildup of an abnormal protein called tau, which gradually kills brain cells.
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The damage to Adam's frontal lobe was unusually severe even compared to other NFL players with cte.
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This kind of damage can cause impulsive behavior, aggression, depression, paranoia, memory loss, and emotional instability.
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I can't even tell you how this affected the Rock Hill community.
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Like, imagine living in a town where everyone knows everyone.
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Where your doctor isn't just your doctor, but someone who delivered your kids.
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Where your neighbor's football success was everyone's success.
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And then in one day, all of that changes.
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Former patients started coming forward with these stories about Dr.
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Leslie that just break my heart.
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Like this one mom who told the story of how Dr.
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Leslie had paid for her kids medications when insurance wouldn't cover them.
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Or how he'd make house calls to elderly patients who couldn't drive to his office.
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And Barbara, she spent countless hours tutoring this one woman's dyslexic son.
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And when the mom tried to pay her, Barbara just said to pay it forward.
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When she could.
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And y'all.
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The children ate.
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Dawes elementary School did something that still makes me emotional when I think about it.
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They created this memorial garden, planting her beloved sunflowers.
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Noah's kindergarten class released butterflies in his memory because, get this, he had been obsessed with their class butterfly garden project just weeks before his death.
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But here's where this story gets even more complicated.
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Remember how I told you Rock Hill was known as Football City usa?
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Well, this tragedy fundamentally changed how this community looks at their favorite sport.
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Like, the changes they made after this are honestly incredible.
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South Pointe High School, that's Adam's alma mater, now requires these super strict baseline cognitive tests for all contact sport athletes, not just football players.
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They've installed these impact sensors in helmets that automatically alert trainers when a hit is too hard.
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And they're doing something that honestly blows my mind.
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They're tracking their athletes, cumulative impact exposure across all sports and years of play like no other high school in the country was doing this at the time.
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But, y'all, here's what really gets me.
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The Leslie family's response to this tragedy shows this extraordinary grace that I honestly don't know if I could muster in their situation.
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Instead of calling for vengeance, they emphasized the need for better understanding of mental health and brain injury in sports.
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They established the Leslie foundation, which now supports research into CTE and mental health services for former athletes.
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Remember those two H VAC technicians?
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The company, GSM Services, established scholarship funds for both the Lewis and Shook children.
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James Lewis's baseball team retired his coaching jersey, and they created this annual sportsmanship award in his name.
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And every GSM technician now wears these patches with Robert Shook's initials on their uniforms.
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And y'all, Rock Hill's relationship with football, it completely changed.
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This town that once proudly called itself Football City USA started having these really hard conversations about the sport that had put them on the map.
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Parents at youth football practices started asking more questions about concussion protocols.
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They weren't just accepting Shake it Off as an answer anymore.
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The city invested in this state of the art facility specifically for sports related brain injuries.
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They named it the Robert Leslie center for Sports Medicine.
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And get this.
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It provides free baseline testing for every single youth athlete in York County.
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Like they're tracking these kids throughout their entire playing careers to make sure they're safe.
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The NFL's response to CTE has evolved significantly over the past decade.
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When Adams entered the league in 2010, concussion protocols were relatively new.
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Today, the league has implemented numerous changes.
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Players now undergo mandatory baseline neurological testing before each season.
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Independent Neurological consultants must be present at every game.
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Any player showing signs of concussion must pass a five step return to play protocol.
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The league has also banned certain types of hits and modified kickoff rules to reduce high speed collisions.
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In 2022, partly in response to continuing concerns about player brain health, the NFL introduced even stricter protocols.
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Players showing gross motor instability must now be removed from play, regardless of potential non neurological explanations.
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This was a direct response to several high profile incidents where clearly concussed players were allowed to continue playing.
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But these changes came too late for Philip Adams and his victims.
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His father's words haunt the sport.
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Football messed him up.
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The NFL offers counseling services through its Player Care foundation, but many former players either don't know about these resources or struggle to access them.
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The transition from professional athlete to civilian is challenging enough without the added burden of brain injury.
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But here's the thing that keeps me up at night about this case.
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While we can talk about all the changes that came after the new protocols, the foundations, the memorials, we can't bring back Dr.
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Leslie, Barbara, Ada, Noah, James and Robert.
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We can't undo what happened that April day.
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And we can't ignore that Philip Adams was both perpetrator and victim of a sport he loved, of injuries we're only beginning to understand, and of a system that maybe could have done more to help him.
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I've read a lot of stories about athletes, about violence, about tragedy.
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But this one, this one hits different because it shows us how invisible injuries can be just as devastating as physical ones.
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How someone can seem fine on the outside while fighting this massive battle on the inside.
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And how sometimes the warning signs are only clear in hindsight.
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If you're struggling with mental health issues and honestly, hearing stories like this can bring up a lot of emotions, please know there are people who want to help.
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The National Suicide Prevention lifeline is available 24.
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7 at 1-800-273-TALK.
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I want to end this episode by sharing something Dr.
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Leslie wrote in one of his books, Angels in the er.
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He said, I know without a doubt that life is fragile.
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I have come to understand that humility may be the greatest virtue, and I am convinced we need to take the time to say the things we deeply feel to the people we deeply care about.
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This case will stay with me forever, not just because of the tragedy, but because it reminds us that every story has layers we might not see at first glance.
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That sometimes the most important thing we can do is pay attention to the people around us, to reach out when we notice changes, and to never, ever take for granted the time we have with the people we love.
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This is Judy with Fangirl Crime, reminding you that while we love sports, we can't ignore when they intersect with tragedy.
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And sometimes the most important stories are the ones that make us question everything we think we know about the games we love.
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Stay safe, stay passionate, and don't let anyone dim your love of the game.
