‘Concussion’ movie subject exaggerated role, researchers say

FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2015, file photo, Dr. Bennet Omalu, left, and actor Will Smith pose together at the cast photo call for the film "Concussion" at The Crosby Street Hotel in New York. In the trailer for the movie “Concussion,” Will Smith, portraying Omalu, says: “I found a disease that no one has ever seen.” It’s a claim that Omalu, a forensic pathologist, has himself made for years, often even 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 medical journals and concussion researchers who were interviewed by The Associated Press. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File) FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2015, file photo, Dr. Bennet Omalu, left, and actor Will Smith pose together at the cast photo call for the film "Concussion" at The Crosby Street Hotel in New York. In the trailer for the movie “Concussion,” Will Smith, portraying Omalu, says: “I found a disease that no one has ever seen.” It’s a claim that Omalu, a forensic pathologist, has himself made for years, often even 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 medical journals and concussion researchers who were interviewed by The Associated Press. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

By Associated Press December 17, 2015 5 min read

BOSTON (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 who were interviewed by The Associated Press. And though no one doubts that Omalu’s diagnosis of Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster was pivotal in understanding the dangers of football, fellow researchers and a medical ethicist 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.”