Kemo
12-01-2015, 07:11 AM
Sony Pictures seemingly has big plans for the Will Smith movie “Concussion,” as they have it opening on Christmas Day. Smith stars as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the real-life forensic pathologist who made it his mission to publicize his findings about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, especially in the brains of American football players. Besides the overall issue having importance to the pro wrestling world, another connection is that WWE Medical Director and Pittsburgh Steelers Team Physician Dr. Joseph Maroon is a character in the film. The script of a seemingly pivotal (but now deleted) scene with the fictionalized version of Maroon (played by Arliss Howard) leaked via The Hollywood Reporter in September, and it started to get some play on wrestling sites (like the Squared Circle community on Reddit) yesterday.
The short scene, which was reportedly cut due to concerns that it was defamatory (it was sourced from a secondhand account) went like this:
MAROON: We have a serious problem.
DR. ELLIOTT PELLMAN: Dave Duerson killed himself today,
MAROON: He didn’t just kill himself. He shot himself in the chest, Roger. In the heart. He left a note. He wanted his brain donated. To be looked at. For CTE.
NFL COMMISSIONER ROGER GOODELL: Good God. Was he symptomatic?
MAROON: I thought he was just an asshole. For the brain’s last act to not just die, but preserve itself in the act of killing, humans don’t do that. We can’t explain it. This is going to unravel.
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You can see why, if there were questions about the accuracy of the dialogue, why it would have been cut, even if the movie has the usual disclaimers about the characters being fictionalized versions of real people. That said, if Maroon is still a prominent character in the movie, and it looks like he is, then it’s likely he still comes off badly, if just going by the official record. As my friend Keith Harris noted at Cageside Seats in September, this is, after all, the man who, among other things:
Attacked the Omalu’s findings of CTE in former Steeler Terry Long by falsely claiming that there were no records of him suffering a concussion during his time on the team.
Argued that youth tackle football is safer than skateboarding.
Authored a journal article on CTE that didn’t disclose his connections to the NFL, the Steelers, and WWE.
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It’s not like this one scene being cut means Maroon is in the clear, public perception-wise, though there are indications that the movie became much less anti-NFL over time and apparently, he’s only in one scene in the final cut. The impact to Maroon himself (and WWE) may not be as significant as originally theorized. The movie will get more of a dialogue going for a while, that’s for sure. Still, will anyone actually see it? Will Smith is a big star, but it’s not the most uplifting and commercial subject matter for Christmas, though a romantic subplot was included seemingly for that very reason. Advance reviews have been mixed so far, with some critics feeling that the movie focuses too much on the personal journey of Smith as Omalu. But Will Smith doing an award bait movie also has its own magnetism. So we may not know until we know.
This all looms as WWE is in the midst of multiple lawsuits modeled after the successful NFL litigation over the concussion issue. That’s something that I’m guessing they don’t want a spotlight on. Especially now that lawyer Konstantine Kyros is pointing out that they simultaneously give money to Chris Nowinski’s Concussion Legacy Foundation (where Paul Levesque serves on the board) while seemingly not directing wrestlers to pledge their brains to the foundation for research.
The short scene, which was reportedly cut due to concerns that it was defamatory (it was sourced from a secondhand account) went like this:
MAROON: We have a serious problem.
DR. ELLIOTT PELLMAN: Dave Duerson killed himself today,
MAROON: He didn’t just kill himself. He shot himself in the chest, Roger. In the heart. He left a note. He wanted his brain donated. To be looked at. For CTE.
NFL COMMISSIONER ROGER GOODELL: Good God. Was he symptomatic?
MAROON: I thought he was just an asshole. For the brain’s last act to not just die, but preserve itself in the act of killing, humans don’t do that. We can’t explain it. This is going to unravel.
Nh0h5i-VYtU
You can see why, if there were questions about the accuracy of the dialogue, why it would have been cut, even if the movie has the usual disclaimers about the characters being fictionalized versions of real people. That said, if Maroon is still a prominent character in the movie, and it looks like he is, then it’s likely he still comes off badly, if just going by the official record. As my friend Keith Harris noted at Cageside Seats in September, this is, after all, the man who, among other things:
Attacked the Omalu’s findings of CTE in former Steeler Terry Long by falsely claiming that there were no records of him suffering a concussion during his time on the team.
Argued that youth tackle football is safer than skateboarding.
Authored a journal article on CTE that didn’t disclose his connections to the NFL, the Steelers, and WWE.
DwVm_9Sfv2I
It’s not like this one scene being cut means Maroon is in the clear, public perception-wise, though there are indications that the movie became much less anti-NFL over time and apparently, he’s only in one scene in the final cut. The impact to Maroon himself (and WWE) may not be as significant as originally theorized. The movie will get more of a dialogue going for a while, that’s for sure. Still, will anyone actually see it? Will Smith is a big star, but it’s not the most uplifting and commercial subject matter for Christmas, though a romantic subplot was included seemingly for that very reason. Advance reviews have been mixed so far, with some critics feeling that the movie focuses too much on the personal journey of Smith as Omalu. But Will Smith doing an award bait movie also has its own magnetism. So we may not know until we know.
This all looms as WWE is in the midst of multiple lawsuits modeled after the successful NFL litigation over the concussion issue. That’s something that I’m guessing they don’t want a spotlight on. Especially now that lawyer Konstantine Kyros is pointing out that they simultaneously give money to Chris Nowinski’s Concussion Legacy Foundation (where Paul Levesque serves on the board) while seemingly not directing wrestlers to pledge their brains to the foundation for research.