'Concussion' hits close to home in NFL

PITTSBURGH -- At 8 years old Antonio Brown Jr. is old enough to know that his famous father plays football for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's aware of how hard he works to excel at the sport and has even seen firsthand the toll that the game has taken on his dad's body, the normal bumps and bruises, as they say, associated with playing professional football.

But the precocious youngster who is routinely seen running about the Steelers locker room after games, was disturbed by what he saw this week after watching an advanced screening for the movie "Concussion" with his dad.

"He asked a lot of questions," Antonio Brown said Wednesday. "Could he die playing football. Could he get hurt playing football."

Those are only some of the conversations that parents and children, as well as others, will be having after "Concussion" hits theaters Friday. The film, starring Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, an Allegheny County forensic pathologist who helped discover the degenerative brain disease chronic encephalopathy (CTE) in deceased NFL players, beginning with Mike Webster, the Steelers Hall of Fame center, is jarring and disturbing to watch at any age.

But for players, current and former, the movie obviously hits particularly close to home.

"I can relate," said Joe Namath, the 73-year-old Beaver Falls great and Pro Football Hall of Famer. "I know guys that have suffered. I know guys. I knew guys that are no longer with us that have developed a problem. I'm thankful that Dr. Omalu did stick with it and brought out the fact that traumatic brain injuries are awful. It happens, not just in sports, but what I hope we're on to is a way to help people that have had traumatic brain injury with methods of helping cure the brain, helping to get the brain healthy again if possible at all."

The issue of brain injuries remains the single biggest issue today in sports, football in particular. The movie, filmed in Pittsburgh with Heinz Field serving as its backdrop, chronicles the NFL's reluctance to accept Omalu's findings about the dangers of repeated blows to the head.

The league and its former players have had a $1 billion lawsuit settlement tied up in the courts for two years. The league estimates that 6,000 former players, or nearly three in 10, could develop Alzheimer's disease or moderate dementia. Omalu said this week that he believes that 90 percent of all players suffer from at least some CTE.

Among current Steelers, most have seen or plan to see "Concussion," according to offensive lineman Ramon Foster, the team's representative to the NFL Players Association. That list of players includes star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and Cody Wallace, who plays Webster's old position, which in the movie is described as the most dangerous on the field.

For all the NFL's missteps and years of inaction regarding concussions, Wallace believes the league is headed in the right direction, beginning with the concussion protocol, which has flagged a handful of Steelers this season.

"We've seen it here a few times and guys are a lot more aware and educated about concussions and taking better care of themselves and reporting when things are happening," said Wallace.

In the testosterone-rich NFL, where concussions used to be labeled as having one's "bell rung" and the motto had been that it's "as much about your availability as ability (ie. playing through pain)," getting players to admit to a brain injury remains an obstacle Foster says.

"Let anybody know what's going on with you and not hide stuff, that's the biggest thing: Ask for help," Foster said. "We as a team, as a league, as players, as men, have to do a better job of asking for help when it's there, and the league has to do a better job of providing it, too."

Roethlisberger caused waves last month in Seattle when he self-reported a concussion, taking himself out in the fourth quarter of a close game after taking a violent hit to the head. He's the most high-profile player to do so. This week he reiterated the need for players to hold themselves accountable.

"You can have the surgeries to your knees and all that other stuff," said Roethlisberger. "The brain is just something you have to live with for the rest of your life, and if you want to be a father and a husband and a brother, whatever you want to be for the rest of your life, you need to take care of your brain."

Antonio Brown says his children are still too young to fully comprehend what it is he does for a living. "It's all fun and games for them," he said. But he did talk to his boy about what he saw portrayed in the movie.

"You have to raise awareness so that he's aware," the Steelers receiver said. "If you want to play, it's not an easy-going game. Just making him knowledgeable of those things that I know what it's like to be a football player and let him decide if he wants to play or not."

Namath, the father of two daughters, echoed a similar sentiment last year, saying that if he would have had a son that he would prefer he didn't play football. Namath also he wouldn't stop him if that's what he wanted to.

But whether if it's Brown's son or another, there will be no shortage anytime soon of willing players, predicts Namath. For all its potential issues, the game is just too great.

"There's always going to be the people that want to play the sport," Namath said. "The sport is going to continue to be around because it's both violent yet you've got to have some art in your soul. You've got to have some talent and agility and quickness and the mind to think quickly. It's got a combination of demanding aspects that we appreciate, yet it has the violence that the fans enjoy. Seeing the contact. It's going to be around and there will always be guys that want to play it."