"Anybody still denying the disease is out of his mind," Omalu told GQ in 2009. The real Mike Webster had become so plagued by chronic back pain that he bought a stun gun so that he could zap his leg, sometimes up to a dozen times, to knock himself out (ESPN.com). More common cases of football players being knocked out occur at roughly sixty to ninety g's. Mike Webster, nicknamed "Iron Mike," was a former center for the Pittsburgh Steelers who passed away of a heart attack in 2002 at age 50. The film also stars Alec Baldwin as Dr. Julian Bailes, the chairman of neurosurgery at West Virginia University Hospitals who teamed up with Omalu to support his CTE research. In fact, before he became Omalu's patient zero following his death, Mike Webster's doctors had known that his repeated concussions had caused damage to his frontal lobe, which led to cognitive impairment, difficulty concentrating and an attention deficit, essentially causing him to become punch-drunk (a condition most commonly found in former boxers). In the movie, Bennet Omalu (Will Smith) arrives at work to discover the feds sifting through the files of his boss and mentor, forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks). -GQ, Yes, and like in the movie, he turned down the position, preferring to remain on the outskirts and stay away from the political side of the job. Similar histories can be attributed to the other suicides addressed in the movie, which might lead one to believe that the tragic aspects of these men's lives put them at an elevated risk for suicide. Omalu pressed forward with the examination of a second brain, of another retired football player named Terry Long. -Concussion book They were dating when Omalu made his initial discoveries, and according to Jeanne Marie Laskas's GQ article on which the film is based, Prema helped Omalu with his research, documenting his work as he examined the brain samples of former NFL players that were sent to him by their loved ones. Omalu discovered the same buildup of tau proteins — another case of CTE — and submitted a second paper to Neurosurgery. In September 2015, a level of shadowy intrigue was added when a New York Times article cited emails from the previous year's Sony hack as evidence that the studio had bowed to the NFL's demands to soften the tone of the movie. No. As we investigated the Concussion true story, we learned that the real Bennet Omalu thought that the NFL doctors would be pleased with his findings and that the league would use his research to try and correct the concussion problem. Yes. Read: Atlanta Falcons Coach Asked NFL Prospect Eli Apple, "Do You Like Men?" For example, though Mike Webster did not outright kill himself, the movie implies that CTE is what caused his downward spiral, a slow suicide of sorts that ultimately ended in his death. at Scouting Event. In the end, Omalu's findings were in fact proven valid, despite the NFL's continued attempts to downplay a link between professional football and CTE (. The Supreme Court judge's rise to the top was aided by a fellow brilliant legal mind and inseparable companion of more than 50 years. Symptoms include memory loss, dementia, aggression, depression, paranoia, and confusion, most often occurring years after the trauma to the brain took place. You Should Know This, Lily James is ‘praying’ for 'Baby Driver 2', Melania Was Caught Literally Ripping Her Hand Away From Trump After the Debate, Half a million deaths by the end of February? -Bustle.com. Omalu was not invited. Of course, the opposite could also be concluded, that the effects of CTE led them down these dark paths - marital problems, depression, drug abuse, mood swings, etc., ultimately ending in suicide. "I treat my patients, the dead patients, as live patients. Webster had been a famous football player who, by the time his life ended at age 50, was "pissing in his own oven and squirting Super Glue on his rotting teeth," according to GQ. Furthermore, it's clear that vindication has come for Omalu, now chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, California, and a professor in the UC Davis Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Still Addicted To Casinos? Before I do an autopsy, I must have a visual contact with the face. No. "I was naive," Omalu admits. He submitted a paper, explaining his discovery and belief that Webster's troubles were the result of repeated head blows from his playing career, to the prestigious medical journal Neurosurgery. at Scouting Event. He also recruited Smith, the sort of A-list star who would draw attention to the project. ", Antonio Brown to return to NFL after agreeing to 1-year deal with Bucs, according to reports, Dodgers starter Julio Urías won't have family at Game 4, but support is a call away, NFL reminds teams that rescheduled games could lead to sanctions, Rams rookie RB Cam Akers eager to get ball back in his hands, Every Senior In Canada Urged To Wear This $49 SmartWatch, Before epic fail, Daniel Jones hit speeds faster than Lamar Jackson's best, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Threaten To Sue Lincoln Project Over Times Square Billboards. All of this makes it into the movie version, of course, which follows Smith-as-Omalu as he begins to investigate a pattern of CTE in football players and winds up bumping up against the NFL, which tries to bury Omalu's findings and discredit his work. By comparison, fighter pilots lose consciousness after enduring five or six g's over an extended period of time. Will Smith stars in Concussion, a dramatic thriller based on the incredible true David vs. Goliath story of American immigrant Dr. Bennet Omalu, the brilliant forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of CTE, a … However, the real Mike Webster had a history of mental illness on both sides of his family. With Sony on board as the film's distributor, shooting began in October 2014. You're a victim of football, but you need to help me, wherever you are. With the release of Concussion, viewers will learn more about his fight to be heard, more than 13 years after Webster's brain changed the course of his life. I do that. The 2015 film Concussion, which is nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the true story category, stars Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, a pathologist who becomes embroiled in a battle with the NFL after his research indicates that a football career can lead to lasting brain damage — but just how true is the story? After taking the brain home and paying out of pocket to have it carefully dissected and stained, he discovered the presence of tau proteins, which impair moods and cognitive function upon accumulation. -Concussion book, Yes, and Dr. Bennet Omalu, along with colleague and friend Dr. Julian Bailes, are working toward it. She did this in part by taking photos, a strategy that Omalu says "was very valuable." By this point, the general press had caught wind of the concept of CTE, and the NFL's MTBI again responded by publicly vilifying Omalu and his research. Yes. Tim Ott has written for Biography and other A+E sites since 2012. Similar to the movie, the two married as Omalu conducted his research. Like in the Concussion movie, they asked former Steelers team doctor, neurosurgeon Julian Bailes. But even though the movie has been made, Omalu's real-life work isn't over. They moved to California and currently have two young children, a daughter, Ashly, and a son, Mark. Ridley Scott's idea of an NFL concussion film was inspired by Dr. Bennett Omalu's study about former NFL stars Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, both of whom committed suicide after suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The tipping point came with an article by Jeanne Marie Laskas in a September 2009 issue of GQ, which detailed Omalu's discovery of CTE and the NFL's continued denial of its existence. -GQ. The raid and charges against Wecht had nothing to do with Omalu, CTE or the NFL. It has dragged me into worldly affairs I do not want to be associated with. The real Omalu, a physician originally from Nigeria, began his research somewhat accidentally, when he was assigned to perform an autopsy on former NFL star Mike Webster, according to a 2009 GQ profile of Omalu that reportedly inspired the 2015 film. Known as the “Gainesville Ripper,” Rolling terrorized the Florida college town during a three-day murderous rampage in late summer 1990. Also watch an interview with former Steeler Mike Webster, which shows him experiencing the likely effects of CTE.