Hot on the heels of my post about Russel Wilson peddling potions, I have another piece of concussion related news. Will Smith, one of the patron saints of American movies, will be starring in the upcoming "Concussion," a film that purports to show the discovery of Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) by Pathologist Bennet Omalu and the consequent resistance from the NFL as Dr. Omalu worked to expose the dangers of repeated head trauma (though only actually seeing the movie will show us how accurate it is).
Dr. Omalu deserves the praise the movie will give him and his work has lead to settlements for former players and (I hope) better protections for current ones, but I want to take just a minute and touch on one character who may or may not make it into the movie: Mike Webster. As an Eagles fan (sorry, I grew up near Philadelphia) I actually hadn't heard of "Iron Mike" until his death. I vaguely remembered thinking how sad it was that a great NFL player died so young (he was 50) and a few of the other details such as his homelessness and estrangement from his wife, but didn't think much of it. Webster was evidently the first or one of the first people Dr. Omalu discovered with CTE (although more soon followed). Profiles of Webster point to troubling but common issues with attention and concentration. It's also very possible he suffered the depression identified by other players (perhaps contributing to his later difficulties with other people). The saddest thing may be that his reputation for staying on the field even when hurt and his exceptionally long career both cemented his reputation and made sure that he would play through pain or confusion. He was doing his job and doing what made him one of the most admired men in the top sport in the country and he died broke and desperate. A longer account is available from ESPN here.
Webster reminds me in many ways of a lot of people I knew who have gone far in football. I can imagine that he was so good at the game and so praised by his team mates that he tied much of his identify to being a great football player. Part of that is play through the pain. A decades long career in football will obviously do more damage than playing in high school, but I hope athletes (not just in football, but hockey, rugby and cheer leading) will look at a case like Iron Mike and really think about what it means to play through the pain. I hope their coaches do too.