Videos
Meet Dr. Bennet Omalu, the Man Will Smith Plays in Concussion
A forensic pathologist, Dr. Omalu conducted the autopsy of Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, which led to his discovery of a new disease that he named chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. He is currently the chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, Calif. and a professor in the UC Davis Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
Will Smith’s new project, in which he plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, the forensic pathologist and neuropathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition caused by repeated blows to the head raised serious questions about whether there is any safe way for people to play football as the game is currently conceived. Those doubts about what is arguably the most popular sport in America reach all the way to the White House: President Obama has repeatedly said that if he had a son, he would not let the boy play football. Smith’s decision to play Omalu is a nod to that growing unease.
There is a particular vindication in the idea of Smith playing Omalu, given some of the struggles that Omalu, who is Nigerian and knew little about football when he began his research, has faced in his efforts to study players’ brains. Omalu’s work on CTE began when he performed the autopsy on former Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Webster. Omalu was struck by reports of changes in Webster’s personality toward the end of his life and wondered whether they might be due to head injury.
Last year, Omalu told Frontline reporter Michael Kirk that he had expected that the National Football League would embrace his findings. Instead, after Omalu submitted a paper to Neurosurgery, the journal where NFL doctors often submit their papers, the league sent a letter to Omalu’s colleague Cyril Wecht, accusing Omalu of fraud.
0 comments