There have been reports that "Concussion" was altered to assuage the NFL, but director Peter Berg upon watching the yet-to-be-released movie said, "This is a film that’s not afraid to take on a very large and powerful organization," according to Ian Mohr of the N.Y. POST. Berg "singled out a line of dialog, 'God does not want us to play football.'" He said, "For anyone who knows anything about the NFL and that organization, those are heavy words, very heavy words." Actor Will Smith, who stars in the movie, said, "The truth is that repetitive head trauma causes brain damage." He added, "I watch the game and ... if it’s not a concussive blow, you just dismiss it, but ... the problem is the repeated subconcussive blows. When a boxer gets hit with a concussive blow, he’s not going to get hit like that for another three months" (N.Y. POST, 11/14). PRO FOOTBALL TALK's Mike Florio noted Sony ensured that the movie told the truth "for credibility and liability reasons." Dr. Julian Bailes, whom Alec Baldwin plays in the film, said, "The movie is accurate." He added, "They say some things that I don’t recall saying by my character and some minor things but, basically, the facts and timeline are absolutely correct." Bailes "worked with Dr. Bennet Omalu to persuade the NFL to acknowledge the existence of [CTE] and its link to repetitive brain injuries resulting from playing football." Bailes said of the movie, "It will reach a much broader audience and let people see for themselves what we went through, what the emerging science was and, in the end, realize that the science, thankfully, did prevail" (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 11/14).
CONCUSSIONS DOWN, BUT WORK REMAINS: The NFL's concussion issue was profiled on "60 Minutes" last night, with CBS’ Steve Kroft noting after a "decade of denying a link between on-field concussions and brain impairment later in life, the NFL finally acknowledged connection and it now trying to re-engineer the sport to fit the medical science.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell indicated that concussions are down 35% since '12 and said he was “convinced” the game is safer than it has ever been. Goodell: "The changes that we’ve made had real results, and we’re seeing that.” But Kroft noted despite the changes and "reduction of concussions, there are still a lot of them,” coming at an average of six per week. NFL Senior VP & Chief of Security Officer Jeff Miller said, “I'm not going to suggest that there's any one idea that's a silver bullet. I think that we're going to be able to, over time, disrupt the helmet industry. ... Helmets are fantastic at doing what they were intended to do, which is prevent skull fracture. But to be designed against concussive injury is a much bigger challenge." Kroft noted the "big breakthrough will come if and when a test is developed to diagnose CTE in the living.” Boston Univ. CTEC Dir of Clinical Research Robert Stern: “That's the focus of pretty much every day of my life. ... I am pretty confident that we're going to be able to diagnose people while they're alive pretty accurately somewhere in five to 10 years” ("60 Minutes," CBS, 11/15).
ADMITTING THERE'S A PROBLEM: In Phoenix, Paola Boivin wrote under the header, "NFL Finally Addressing Concussion Issue." Although the NFL "doesn’t excuse its history, the league’s aggressive efforts are making the game safer with rule changes, education and acknowledgement." Miller said, "What (the movie) provides, in part, if you’re looking at the positive side of this, is an opportunity to talk about this issue. It’s on the minds of a lot of people. If that movie elevates the conversation, then we want to have conversations like this" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 11/15).
