The NFL has reportedly made objections which led to the deletion of scenes from a new movie, Concussion, which highlights the head injuries, head trauma, concussions, and suicides suffered by NFL players. Sony Pictures Entertainment, the movie studio who will release Concussion later this year, showed pre-release versions of the movie to the NFL and made cuts after NFL objections, according to the New York Times, USA Today, and many other media outlets. The cuts were made purportedly to avoid potential attacks from the NFL on Sony for taking too much “creative license.” The USA Today article provides seven scenes from the original screenplay which show the NFL in a damning light.
The movie focuses on CTE or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and the efforts of Dr. Bennet Omalu to recognize the terrible harm done to NFL players through concussion, repetitive head trauma, and CTE. A number of former NFL stars, such as Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, have committed suicide and post-mortem review has found significant degenerative brain injuries in these players as well as in others incapacitated by CTE, concussion, and head trauma sustained while playing in the NFL. While the movie may be watered down somewhat as a result of the NFL’s intervention, LawCash applauds the efforts of Dr. Omalu and others to bring this condition to light, and to help prevent it in the future. LawCash pre-settlement funding has supported a number of NFL concussion cases, and has seen the damage first hand in review of and funding concussion lawsuits.
View the trailer to Concussion and you will see that this movie presents the issue in stark and frightening terms, making clear its view that the NFL covered up the story. Dr. Omalu implores people to “tell the truth,” warning that this form of repetitive brain injury which he discovered, CTE, chokes the brain, and that more people will die if the NFL does not acknowledge and address the disease. The trailer is powerful and LawCash, along with many others, awaits the December release of this movie starring Will Smith as Dr. Omalu. Sometimes a picture (or a movie) is worth well more than a thousand words, and can save lives.
