Subject of ‘Concussion’ movie exaggerated role: researchers

‘Competing interests and agendas’

BOSTON, Dec 18, (AP): In the trailer for the movie “Concussion,” star Will Smith says: “I found a disease that no one has ever seen.”

It’s a claim the real-life doctor portrayed by Smith, forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu, has himself made for years, giving a detailed description about how he came to name that disease “chronic traumatic encephalopathy.”

But Omalu neither discovered the disease nor named it, according to scientific journals and brain researchers interviewed by The Associated Press. And though no one doubts that Omalu’s diagnosis of Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster was pivotal in understanding football’s dangers, fellow researchers say Omalu goes too far when he publicly takes credit for naming or discovering CTE.

“It’s just not true, and I think he knows that,” said William Stewart, a neuropathologist at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland.

“Chronic traumatic encephalopathy has been around for decades. It’s not a new term,” Stewart said. “The only thing I would say that Bennet has done is that he identified it in an American footballer.”

In a telephone call to the AP on Thursday, Omalu passionately defended his work and attributed the criticisms to “people historically who have made a systematic attempt to discredit me, and to marginalize me.”

“This is totally false. And write that in a big font, that it is totally and completely false,” he shouted into the phone. “There is a good deal of jealousy and envy in my field. For me to come out and discover the paradigm shift, it upset some people. I am well aware of that.”

Sony Pictures, which will release “Concussion” on Christmas Day, issued a statement on Thursday that also noted “competing interests and agendas ... that are still trying to undermine Dr Omalu’s work.”

“What is beyond dispute is that Dr Omalu’s discovery shined a light on a reality that the NFL ignored for too long and continues to play out every Sunday,” Sony Pictures spokeswoman Jean Guerin said.

With its marquee star and holiday release, “Concussion” is certain to revive that debate. Dozens of former football players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE after descending into lives of depression, alcohol or drug abuse, violent behavior and even suicide.

Also beyond dispute is the personal struggle Omalu went through after the NFL sought to discredit his research rather than confront the threat to long-term health of its players.

But the new complaints are not from the league and its supporters, but from fellow researchers who say Omalu is claiming credit he doesn’t deserve.

This time, the quarrel seems to center on what it means to discover a disease, and what it is to name it.