Dr. Bennet Omalu, the now-famous physician portrayed by Will Smith in Concussion, believes OJ Simpson has CTE — the brain disease that afflicts many NFL players but can only be diagnosed posthumously. Omalu told ABC News that he’d bet his “medical license on” Simpson’s having the disease.
Omalu has not examined Simpson, but notes that Simpson was “exposed to thousands of blunt force trauma of his brain.” And Simpson’s behavior, Omalu points out, is consistent with the major symptoms of CTE like impaired judgement, mood disorders and violence. Simpson is in prison for a robbery he committed more than a decade after he was notoriously acquitted of murdering his wife and her friend, Ron Goldman. The repercussions of a Simpson diagnosis could be far-reaching legally, but not just for him. If potential CTE is acknowledged as an involuntary rage trigger — used as a legal defense like a sort of temporary insanity — then any former athlete might employ it as a defense.
