'Concussion' movie trailer, news & updates: Will Smith's latest film terrifies the NFL [video]

• comments
• 
• 

Will Smith's sports drama "Concussion" delves into the NFL and the heated debate about the effects of traumatic head injury from the sport.

According to The Guardian, the movie is based on a true story. Smith will be playing as Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian forensic pathologist and neuropathologist. He discovers the trend of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), resulting from repeated head trauma, in National Football League (NFL) players after he performed an autopsy on a former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster (played by David Morse).

According to the report by USA Today, the NFL denies the occurrence of head injuries in their players. The news site added that Omalu's discovery happened more than 10 years ago and has been reported in interviews, books and documentaries. However, the issue has been snubbed by the NFL and the sport and its following remained large as ever.

Omalu has tried to warn the football establishment, however, in a book and documentary called "League of Denial" by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, which covered the traumatic brain injury issues suffered by football players, "We have come to know that the NFL does not handle its players very well in terms of injury stipends and many others," according to Bleacher Report.

"We all know more about this issue than we did 10 or 20 years ago," said Jeff Miller, the senior VP of health and safe policy in NFL, according to the report by USA Today. "As we continue to learn more, we apply those learnings to make our game and players safer."

In an interview with The MMQB's Peter King, director and writer Peter Landesman revealed why he made the movie. He says that "was an extraordinary opportunity to explore what it is to be an American" in the shoes of an immigrant coming to America to discover that one of the country's "sacred" sport was actually treacherous.

Landesman adds that for him, "Concussion" is "about making adult choices."

"Once you have the information-and the information has been obscured for a long time, it's been buried and covered up by people who don't want to damage the sport-the information is now out there, and I hope this movie brings together the information in a way that the general public can metabolize and now make their own decisions," he told King.

"Concussion" will be in theaters on Dec. 25 this year.