Latest news with #PhillipAdams
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
NYC Shooter's Note Revives CTE Issues Surrounding Football
New York City's deadliest mass shooting in 25 years appears to have been carried out Monday by a former high school running back who seemed to have been targeting the corporate headquarters of the National Football League. The alleged shooter, 27-year-old Shane Devon Tamura, reportedly carried a three-page note with him that referred to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease that has afflicted athletes, and referenced a former NFL player, Terry Long, who died by suicide in 2005. More from ESPN Plans to Spend Billions for a Cable Network? In This Economy? Why Bengals Rookie Shemar Stewart Is Holding Out on Contract Sporticast 468: What Is Gotham? Batman's Home, or New York City? After killing four people and seriously injuring an NFL employee, Tamura shot himself in the chest, police said. 'Study my brain please,' his note reportedly said. 'I'm sorry.' CTE, which was found in more than 60 cases in a 2023 study of athletes who were under 30 years old at the time of their death, can currently only be definitively diagnosed with an autopsy. Researchers continue to study the links between collisions in sports including football, CTE and violence. A number of football players have been found to have signs of the degenerative brain disease, including Phillip Adams, a former NFL cornerback who killed six people and died by suicide in 2021; Jovan Belcher, who killed his girlfriend before shooting himself at the Kansas City Chiefs practice facility in 2012; and Aaron Hernandez, who was found guilty of killing an acquaintance in 2013. Dave Duerson and Junior Seau are among other players who died by suicide before being diagnosed with CTE post-mortem. In 2016, the NFL acknowledged a link between football and CTE. A study published in Nature in 2023 found that 'repeated nonconcussive injuries are associated with CTE pathology.' The disease causes the death of nerve cells in the brain and possible symptoms include cognitive impairment, trouble moving, emotional instability and aggressive or impulsive behavior. Police said Tamura had a 'documented mental health history' while living in Nevada. 'We urge anybody who's concerned about their mental health and think it could be associated with hits to the head they took to seek care, because we have found that people, when they are struggling with mental health issues, they are treatable,' Concussion Legacy Foundation co-founder and CEO Chris Nowinski said in an interview. 'The goal is to prevent these tragedies and help people seek care, and we've had a lot of success in doing that.' Nowinski said that calls to the CLF helpline have risen 30% this year. The league and lower levels of football have instituted practice policies and rule changes to decrease brain injury risk in recent years. Studies have found that violent behavior in NFL player populations are still lower than the general male population (though critics of those reports argue that the general population is not a fair control group to compare with previously healthy—and in some cases rich and famous—ex-pro athletes), and many of those who play the sport don't develop documented neurological symptoms related to CTE. The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has participated in past research tied to CTE, including a 2023 study involving brain autopsies of women who experienced intimate partner violence. While they could be called to evaluate Tamura's body, a full diagnosis could take weeks or months. Tamura entered the ground floor of the office building at 345 Park Avenue after 6 p.m. on Monday, shooting an M4 rifle. He killed a New York police officer, Didarul Islam, who was off-duty and working security in the building. Three others were fatally shot, including Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner. Tamura reportedly rode an elevator to the 33rd floor, where he fatally shot a woman before killing himself. In a note to NFL workers, commissioner Roger Goodell said a league employee was 'seriously injured' in the attack. The person was reported to be in stable condition as of Tuesday. Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that Tamura likely intended to attack the NFL's offices, which were on a lower floor of the building. Tamura reportedly played running back in high school in Southern California. More recently, he worked as a security guard at a Las Vegas casino. (This story has been updated throughout with additional information about CTE studies and with comments from Chris Nowinski.) Best of Tennis Prize Money Tracker: Which Player Has Earned the Most in 2025? Browns Officially Get Public Money for New Stadium in Ohio Budget WNBA Franchise Valuations Ranking List: From Golden State to Atlanta
Yahoo
29-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
What to know about CTE after NYC shooting suspect appears to target NFL headquarters
The gunman who opened fire in midtown Manhattan on Monday, killing four people before turning the gun on himself, left a note mentioning 'CTE' several times, officials familiar with the investigation told NBC News. CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a brain condition caused by repeated injuries to the head, typically over many years. The shooter was targeting the headquarters of the National Football League, which is in the Park Avenue building where the shooting took place, authorities said. While CTE can't be formally diagnosed without an autopsy, one third of former NFL players suspect they have the disease, according to a 2024 report. The NFL first acknowledged the link between CTE and football in 2016. Former NFL player Phillip Adams was found to have severe CTE after he gunned down six people before taking his own life in South Carolina in 2021. NBC News spoke with Dr. Aaron Lord, chief of neurology at NYU Langone who specializes in brain injuries, about how CTE changes the brain and a person's behavior. What is chronic traumatic encephalopathy? First characterized in boxers, the condition used to be called 'punch drunk syndrome' and can cause neurological conditions including early dementia, memory impairment, personality changes, and movement disorders similar to Parkinson's disease, Lord said. CTE can affect anyone who sustains repeated head injuries. 'It's just about repetitive shock waves to the brain,' he said. The condition's link to suicide and suicidal ideation is an area of active study, in part because there seems to be a higher rate of CTE than expected among high-caliber athletes who have committed suicide, Lord said. Still, experts haven't drawn any conclusions about 'the incidence and prevalence of this disease in the population, or in specific athletes,' he said. 'It's a new one we're still defining,' he said. How is CTE diagnosed? Without an autopsy, doctors can't diagnose CTE, and even then it can be difficult to pinpoint because there's no specific criteria to diagnose it, Lord said. An autopsy must reveal evidence of tissue degeneration and abnormal clumps of certain proteins around blood vessels in the brain. Some patients and their doctors may speculate that they have the disease because of noticeable changes in their moods and behavior. Patients also know if they've suffered blows to the head, how many and how severe. Lord said that a brain MRI on concerned patients might reveal some changes consistent with the disease, but it's not enough for a diagnosis. There is some overlap in symptoms with psychiatric disorders including major depressive disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Lord said. Lord has also seen a link between patients with CTE and homicidal ideation and impulsivity as well as other personality changes. Lord tends to see the disease in older individuals, possibly because of earlier repeated impacts, but even one hit to the head can cause damage, even if that trauma doesn't result in CTE. 'Even somebody who's just been in a single car accident and has injured the frontal lobes of their brain can have permanent personality changes and impulse control and psychiatric changes,' he said. Is there treatment for CTE? Although there is no direct treatment for the disease, psychiatric medication can help with behavioral control and other symptoms, Lord said. Not everyone who gets a concussion develops CTE, according to the Mayo clinic. Prevention is the best medicine: Avoiding head injury by using seatbelts or helmets can lower the risk of getting a CTE and other brain-injuries, Lord said. This article was originally published on
NBC News
29-07-2025
- Health
- NBC News
What to know about CTE after NYC shooting suspect appears to target NFL headquarters
The gunman who opened fire in midtown Manhattan on Monday, killing four people before turning the gun on himself, left a note mentioning 'CTE' several times, officials familiar with the investigation told NBC News. CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a brain condition caused by repeated injuries to the head, typically over many years. The shooter was targeting the headquarters of the National Football League, which is in the Park Avenue building where the shooting took place, authorities said. While CTE can't be formally diagnosed without an autopsy, one third of former NFL players suspect they have the disease, according to a 2024 report. The NFL first acknowledged the link between CTE and football in 2016. Former NFL player Phillip Adams was found to have severe CTE after he gunned down six people before taking his own life in South Carolina in 2021. NBC News spoke with Dr. Aaron Lord, chief of neurology at NYU Langone who specializes in brain injuries, about how CTE changes the brain and a person's behavior. What is chronic traumatic encephalopathy? First characterized in boxers, the condition used to be called 'punch drunk syndrome' and can cause neurological conditions including early dementia, memory impairment, personality changes, and movement disorders similar to Parkinson's disease, Lord said. CTE can affect anyone who sustains repeated head injuries. 'It's just about repetitive shock waves to the brain,' he said. The condition's link to suicide and suicidal ideation is an area of active study, in part because there seems to be a higher rate of CTE than expected among high-caliber athletes who have committed suicide, Lord said. Still, experts haven't drawn any conclusions about 'the incidence and prevalence of this disease in the population, or in specific athletes,' he said. 'It's a new one we're still defining,' he said. How is CTE diagnosed? Without an autopsy, doctors can't diagnose CTE, and even then it can be difficult to pinpoint because there's no specific criteria to diagnose it, Lord said. An autopsy must reveal evidence of tissue degeneration and abnormal clumps of certain proteins around blood vessels in the brain. Some patients and their doctors may speculate that they have the disease because of noticeable changes in their moods and behavior. Patients also know if they've suffered blows to the head, how many and how severe. Lord said that a brain MRI on concerned patients might reveal some changes consistent with the disease, but it's not enough for a diagnosis. There is some overlap in symptoms with psychiatric disorders including major depressive disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Lord said. Lord has also seen a link between patients with CTE and homicidal ideation and impulsivity as well as other personality changes. Lord tends to see the disease in older individuals, possibly because of earlier repeated impacts, but even one hit to the head can cause damage, even if that trauma doesn't result in CTE. 'Even somebody who's just been in a single car accident and has injured the frontal lobes of their brain can have permanent personality changes and impulse control and psychiatric changes,' he said. Is there treatment for CTE? Although there is no direct treatment for the disease, psychiatric medication can help with behavioral control and other symptoms, Lord said. Not everyone who gets a concussion develops CTE, according to the Mayo clinic. Prevention is the best medicine: Avoiding head injury by using seatbelts or helmets can lower the risk of getting a CTE and other brain-injuries, Lord said.
The Guardian
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
King's birthday honours list 2025: from broadcasting luminary Phillip Adams to a PM and a film-making couple
The broadcasting luminary Phillip Adams has been appointed a companion of the Order of Australia on the King's birthday honours roll, where he is joined by the former prime minister Scott Morrison and film-making couple Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin. Adams was made a member of the order in 1987, then an officer in 1992. At the age of 85, he can now add the suffix AC – denoting Australia's highest civilian honour – to his name. 'It's good, isn't it, given I left school at 15,' he said. 'If they waited any longer, it would have been posthumous.' Adams started writing at the age of 16 for the communist newspaper the Workers' Weekly Guardian and today writes for The Australian, earning 'a penny from Rupert, who keeps me on, as I often say, to give the illusion of pluralism'. He said his nomination was 'interesting' in that it involved two ex-prime ministers from different sides of the political fence: Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull. He is most proud of his roadmap – and subsequent securing of funding – for the Australian film industry, his early alerts to climate change and work on refugee justice and the voice referendum – even if, by his measure, some of those campaigns have been 'fizzes'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But his most enjoyable role was his 33 years at the helm of Radio National's Late Night Live, 'pumping out an infinite number of interviews', he told Guardian Australia. Morrison, the prime minister from August 2018 until May 2022, is also among the 14 people appointed companion of the order, with his leadership in Australia's contribution to Aukus singled out for mention by the council overseeing the honours. The former Liberal leader said he was 'honoured and grateful' to have been appointed and that his time as the country's 30th PM was an 'immense privilege'. His tenure faced 'unrelenting' natural disasters and a global pandemic, through which, he said in a statement, 'Australia proudly prevailed'. He thanked the Australian people and his former colleagues, in particular Josh Frydenberg and Michael McCormack, as well as the Liberal party 'and the people of Cook in southern Sydney for the honour of representing them in the Australian parliament'. 'Above all, I am exceedingly grateful to my wife Jenny, daughters Abbey and Lily, my mother Marion and late father John, and all my family and friends,' he said. Luhrmann, the writer and director of Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet, and his artistic collaborator and partner, Martin, have also been appointed to the order as companions. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Martin won four Academy Awards for her costume and production design on The Great Gatsby and Moulin Rouge!, adding a Bafta for her costume design in 2022's Elvis. She and Luhrmann have 20 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards between them. Prof Graeme Stephens, a co-director at Nasa's climate sciences centre, the Sydney businesswoman and author Wendy McCarthy and South African-Australian author JM Coetzee have become companions of the order, adding the honour to a long list of previous accolades, including Coetzee's Nobel prize in literature. As the ambassador to the Holy See from 2012 until 2016, John McCarthy worked closely with the late cardinal George Pell. The Catholic church lawyer, involved in the controversial Towards Healing church-run compensation scheme, becomes a member of the order. The former Vogue Australia editor Kirstie Clements receives a medal of the order of Australia, as does the skin cancer awareness ambassador and former Australian Women's Weekly editor Deborah Hutton. A meritorious award goes to the ACT's Dr Bridget Gilmour-Walsh, an architect of new federal vaping legislation. This year's King's birthday honours roll recognises 830 Australians across general and military divisions. The youngest recipient, Scott Guerini, 19, is recognised for his charitable fundraising, while the oldest, South Australian resident Henry Young, is honoured at the age of 101 for his service to veterans and tennis.
