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Pitt announces foundation named for ‘Concussion' doctor

PITTSBURGH — The University of Pittsburgh is set to announce a foundation named for a pathologist at the center of Will Smith's new movie, "Concussion."

Smith plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, a former deputy coroner in Pittsburgh who is now the  chief medical examiner in San Joaquin, California.

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Omalu discovered Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a former NFL football player, which led the league to adopt new safety rules designed to prevent concussions -- as well as a $1 billion federal lawsuit by current and former players who claim to be suffering the after-effects of traumatic brain injuries.

The Bennet Omalu Foundation will seek to drive research into brain injuries and CTE.

The doctor and others will speak about the foundation before and after a screening of the film Tuesday evening at the Southside Works Cinema in Pittsburgh.

Despite the hype surrounding the film, it’s not something the team at the center of it all is uncomfortable discussing.

At a charity event in Sharpsburg Tuesday morning, Steelers officials told Channel 11 that President Art Rooney II wouldn’t take questions about the movie and would instead address it at “the appropriate time.”

The story starts in Pittsburgh with the Steelers and “Iron Mike” Webster.

The Hall of Famer won four Super Bowls, but his life fell apart after he retired. He died in 2002 at 50 years old.

Omalu performed Webster’s autopsy and discovered the disease that became known as CTE.

Two years later, former Steeler Justin Strzelczyk died and was later found to be suffering from CTE, and just earlier this year, former Steeler Adrian Robinson, who also had CTE, took his own life at age 25.

Keana McMahon, Strzelczyk’s wife, agreed to be a part of the film.

"I have a story that needs to be told and they can get it out there on a level that I never could,” she said.

McMahon said that she thought her 6-foot-6, 300-pound husband was bipolar, saying he would leave the house without saying a word.

"Mood swings were the biggest thing. I didn't know from one day to the next what I was going to get or when he walked out of a room and came back in what I was going to get,” she said. “He would get on his bike and go for a bike ride and call me and say, ‘I'm in Buffalo,’ and he'd be gone for three days."

McMahon said she feared for their two children, so she filed for divorce.

She said Strzelczyk spiraled out of control, and in September 2004, he died in a fiery car wreck on a New York interstate when he drove into oncoming traffic.

"The brain slides that the coroner in New York state took, Bennett didn't get his hands on those until three years later after Justin died and that's when the diagnosis came,” McMahon said.

She said the movie truly shows what Justin went through and hopes it opens people's eyes.

As for herself, she said she refuses to watch football at all.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WPXI

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