Watch: Will Smith Tackles the NFL Head-On (We Couldn’t Resist) in Concussion
Photo from YouTubeWe don’t think Roger Goodell’s going to happy about this.
Will Smith is changing roles and accents to play the lead in the news-sports-medicine drama Concussion, written and directed by Peter Landesman. Smith plays real-life Nigerian neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, the man who put a name to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a disease of the brain most commonly found in athletes who experience repetitive head trauma. Omalu first diagnosed CTE in 2002 while doing an autopsy on former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster. As one can imagine, the NFL did not take well to Omalu’s declaration that football was causing severe, fatal brain damage. Landesman’s film suggest the league’s reaction was downright sinister. The film also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, Stephen Moyer and Luke Wilson, who will play Goodell (so, okay, Goodell has got to be happy with at least that comparison).Concussion, a Sony film, was a victim of one of the many email hacks which revealed that the movie is posed to be something that will really “piss off the NFL.”
Concussion opens Christmas day.