“There were inklings that he was developing clear behavioral and cognitive issues,” McKee said. “I don’t think he snapped. It appeared to be a cumulative progressive impairment. He was getting increasingly paranoid. He was having increasing difficulties with his memories and he was very likely having more and more impulsive behaviors.”
Adams’s family agreed to send his brain to be tested for C.T.E. at Boston University, a leading site for research on the disease. More than 315 former N.F.L. players have been posthumously diagnosed with C.T.E., including 24 players who died in their 20s and 30s, according to McKee.
Junior Seau, 43, and Dave Duerson, 50, were both found to have C.T.E. after their deaths by suicide, as did Jovan Belcher, 25, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs who killed his girlfriend before shooting himself in 2012.
“We cannot say that we are surprised by these results, however, it is shocking to hear how severe his condition was,” Adams’s family said in a statement. “After going through medical records from his football career, we do know that he was desperately seeking help from the N.F.L. but was denied all claims due to his inability to remember things and to handle seemingly simple tasks such as traveling hours away to see doctors and going through extensive evaluations.”
The N.F.L. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings of Adams’s examination.
Scott Casterline, Adams’s former agent, said he had recommended a lawyer who could help Adams file claims but Adams suddenly dropped the lawyer around January 2020. Casterline said he offered to help Adams access his medical records and that Adams had appointments set up to be seen by third-party doctors, but missed them.
“I remember him telling me that he was supposed to go to Atlanta and he never went and I called his dad afterward and said, ‘What happened?’” Casterline said. “He said, ‘Scott, he wasn’t in the right place to go. He couldn’t do that.’”