Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)

Mike Webster was a football player who played in the National Football League for 16 years with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs.When he died at age 50, Steelers’ management said it was due to a heart attack. However, he was the first former NFL player to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is a disease that presents similar to Alzheimer’s, but can only be diagnosed after autopsy. After he passed away, an autopsy was performed and he was found to have CTE. This is where “Concussion” starts.

During Mike Webster’s autopsy, Bennet Omalu (pathologist) finds deterioration in the brain that is similar to the deterioration found in brains with Alzheimer's disease. Omalu publishes his findings in a medical journal, and quickly gets on the bad side of the NFL. As other athletes receive the same diagnosis, Omalu tries to raise awareness about the trauma.

Smith has been nominated for numerous awards and starred in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” (1990-96),”Men in Black” (1997), and “The Pursuit of Happyness” (2006). Alec Baldwin also stars in the film as Dr. Julian Bailes. Baldwin has been in “Pearl Harbor” (2001), “The Cooler” (2003), and “30 Rock” (2006-13), as well as having hosted several Saturday Night Live episodes. Fun fact: Baldwin also narrated 73 episodes of “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends”!

“Concussion” was written by Peter Landesman, who has also directed “Parkland” (2013) and written “Kill the Messenger” (2014). Previously, he has been a painter and novelist, as well as an accomplished journalist.

Despite coming from a diverse background and being relatively new to film, Landesman wrote a moving story that shines a new light on safety regarding the NFL and if nothing more, “Concussion just may bring awareness to a truly terrible, yet barely known