Will Smith's newest movie Concussion is slated to hit theaters on Christmas Day. In it, the former Fresh Prince of Bel Air star plays Dr. Bennet Omalu. Omalu's name is most likely not well known in many households across America, but what he discovered throughout years of painstaking research has no doubt had an effect on the way the National Football League does business today.
Dr. Omalu's groundbreaking discovery is what is known today as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE. CTE affects those athletes who have had a history of repetitive brain trauma, such as concussions. Junior Seau is perhaps among the most well-known former NFL greats who fell victim to the disease in 2012 by committing suicide. It wasn't until sometime later that it was discovered that Seau had been suffering from CTE.
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Angulo otimo under CC BY-SA 3.0 License
Other than the 2013 PBS Documentary entitled League of Denial, there aren't too many works of film or television that have been a real eye-opener to the story of CTE. The League of Denial documentary was pretty groundbreaking itself in shedding light to years of the National Football League staying quiet on an issue that over the years, greatly effected the safety of its own players. Hopefully with the Christmas Day release of Concussion, the game of football can be even greater than it already is going forward. Not to mention possible medical advancements for treatment in the field of CTE in the coming years.
Tim Musick
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