Actor (And Football Dad) Will Smith On Playing The ‘Concussion’ Doctor

“They didn’t really understand the disease, that was Bennett’s discovery, but they did understand these players are permanently and irrevocably damaged by these concussions, and sending backers back into games after having received a concussion, it’s an incredibly injudicious act”. It gave him what he needed to know. These include a Hulked-up David Morse as “Iron Mike” Webster, a glue-huffing loose cannon, and ex-NFL tackle Matt Willig as ill-fated lineman Justin Strzelczyk. There is a story to be told here, and it’s too bad that Concussion tells it in such tedious fashion. Smith hasn’t been better, the story is engaging and interesting, besides that I hold no interest in either parties and the film paints a clear message about the status of immigrants in America. Dr. Omalu does not use the same knife on different cadavers out of respect for the dead. A professor and director of the writing program at the University of Pittsburgh, she has since expanded upon that for a trade paperback, “Concussion” (Random House, $16), featuring a photo of Mr. Smith on the cover. Five players die young with no clues as to why.

They were interested – just not in the way Omalu expected.

Nabel said she was concerned that media coverage of the posthumous diagnosis of CTE in 87 former NFL players had raised public anxiety about the dangers of football “without any direct evidence” that multiple concussions cause long-term brain disease. It becomes his crusade, perhaps even to the point of putting himself in physical danger, as the National Football League forcefully pushes back and tries to discredit him. CTE can only be detected in a corpse.

That guy he didn’t want to play is Dr. Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist and Nigerian immigrant at the center of Concussion.

Ms. Laskas was a consultant on the movie, spent time on the set and saw a rough cut in the summer along with Dr. Omalu. The competition here is between a good-hearted, talented doctor and a juggernaut corporation who, as stated in the film, “Owns a day of the week”. Commissioner Roger Goodell (Luke Wilson) defends the NFL for not admitting the connection between brain trauma and football.

Peter Landesman has written and directed this long time coming, important film which proves that concussion could be leading to early death of football players. What’s more, their brains showed signs of the same kind of damage that turned up in Webster’s. (Is this Dr. Bennett Omalu or Dr. Ben Carson?) Perhaps the NFL was overdue for a reckoning: After all, as the movie reminds us, the day of the week that professional football “owns” is “the same day the church used to own”.

A series of violent plays initiated by New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr.in a game against the unbeaten Carolina Panthers on Sunday – including an intentional helmet to helmet hit – has only exacerbated concerns about the violent nature of the sport. Bailes is played in the movie by Alec Baldwin.

Giant Hall of Famer Frank Gifford suffered a horrendous concussion in 1960. No one has seen something this big confront something so existentially unsafe. Or is it like the games inHunger Games? The retired star player died unexpectedly after a multi-year struggle with depression, drug abuse, mood disorders and suicide attempts.

My fiancé was a Pittsburgh Steeler while I had been a cheerleader.

On Monday night, I watched an advance copy of the movie Concussion.

“I did not want him to see an autopsy – they are not a delightful experience”, says Omalu. Hydrocephalus can be a result of brain trauma. I examined his brain, and he had CTE.

“Concussion” hits hard for football players, especially former players. Their names could have been at the end of the film.

In terms of volume of fatalities, high school American football is the deadliest arena in USA sport, with 11 deaths reported so far in 2015, including several involving blunt force trama to the head.

Other characters are portrayed serviceably, from Alec Baldwin as the guilt-ridden ex-Steelers’ team doctor (who watched as his ex-patients and friends disintegrated over the years) to Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the Kenyan-born nurse who became Omalu’s confidant and then his wife. Concussion only tells part of the story.