CTE doctor Bennet Omalu claims NFL behind Washington Post hit piece

By: Kirsten F.

Bennet Omalu, the doctor credited with discovering Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in former football players and — and who was portrayed by Will Smith in the 2015 movie “Concussion” — is claiming unnecessary roughness on his reputation.

Last month, a Washington Post piece alleged that Omalu has “built a career off distorted science” and questioned everything from the doctor’s claims that he named the feared brain disease to his diagnostic methods.

“I ignored it, but on Sunday night, my wife walked into my office and she was in tears. I consoled her but she said, ‘No, you have to respond,’” he told The Post. “What have I done to anybody? I have been fighting this battle for almost 20 years now. CTE has evolved and moved forward. Why are they coming back to attack me?”

The story by Will Hobson said that the Nigeria-born forensic pathologist and neuropathologist “routinely exaggerates his accomplishments and dramatically overstates the known risks of CTE and contact sports, fueling misconceptions about the disease, according to interviews with more than 50 experts in neurodegenerative disease and brain injuries, and a review of more than 100 papers from peer-reviewed medical journals.”

But Omalu said he believes that powerful sports leagues are behind the “vindictive” article, which he alleged cherry-picked information to build a “false narrative that was not journalism but a gossip piece [like] you find in the National Enquirer.

“This is not the first time the NFL, the NHL, the WWE and the NCAA have used journalists and doctors to attack me. They hide behind doctors and journalists. They will not come attack me directly because that would be too obvious,” said the 51-year-old, adding that he is currently a designated expert witness in cases where the NHL, NCAA and NHL are defendants.

In 2005, Omalu published a paper on former Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Webster, “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a National Football League Player,” that brought CTE diagnoses in NFL athletes to public attention and called for further research of the disease. The findings were initially dismissed by the NFL.

The NFL did not comment on this accusation, and the NHL and the NCAA did not return The Post’s requests for comment. Jerry McDevitt, outside counsel for WWE, said in a statement: “I never spoke to anyone at the Washington Post and no one at WWE knew they were doing it until the story was published. [Omalu] never did serve as an expert witness in any litigation against the WWE.”

The WaPo story also extensively quotes neuropathologist Ann McKee, the director of Boston University’s CTE center. McKee is the lead author of a 2017 study that found CTE in 110 out of 111 brains of retired NFL players.

She told the paper of Omalu, “His criteria doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t know what he’s doing.”

Omalu claimed that McKee’s research center has taken research money from the NFL in 2010 and the WWE in 2013, pointing out that neither endowment was mentioned in the WaPo piece.

McKee and the CTE center did not return requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the Washington Post told The Post: “In 2010, Dr. Ann McKee’s research group received a $1 million grant from the NFL. Since then, her group has produced some of the most significant research suggesting playing football increases the risk of brain disease. Her current work is funded, in part, by a foundation that seeks to have youth tackle football outlawed.”

“I have never met [McKee], but thank god for BU. They validated my work. I am grateful. And today many universities have CTE programs. Why would she turn around and attack me?” said Omalu, adding that he is now researching ways to diagnose the disease in the living. (Currently CTE can only be diagnosed after death.)

Omalu is particularly upset that the article connected his finances to his position as the most public face of CTE science — including a million dollar home, and him being paid $10,00 per case as an expert courtroom witness and $27,500 per speaking engagement.

“I built a million-dollar home in Pittsburgh in 2006. I started driving an S-Class Mercedes in 2000, long before I discovered Mike Webster. I’ve always worked as an expert witness,” Omalu said.

The doctor, who is based in Northern California, said he didn’t participate in the WaPo story because the writer sent him “harassing emails” calling him a “fraud,” so he knew he wouldn’t get a fair shake. The doctor also said he didn’t have faith in Hobson’s grasp of the scientific intricacies. And Omalu also alleged that Hobson “was contacting the families of the cases I have done and he was saying I misdiagnosed their cases.”

“Two weeks before publication of the story, Washington Post reporter Will Hobson sent Dr. Bennet Omalu a detailed fact-checking memo that included every assertion of fact in the piece. Omalu and his representative did not reply, nor did they agree to longstanding requests for an interview. Neither the memo nor the story included the word ‘fraud,’” the Washington Post spokesperson said. “The Washington Post stands behind the story.”

Omalu — who noted that, in 2016, the American Medical Association honored him for having discovered CTE in football players — said he doesn’t have problems with anyone questioning his research and findings, but rather with what he sees as a personal attack.

“Having doubts is part of science. Please, doctors, if you don’t agree with something somebody has published or the position of another doctor, do not go to the pages of a newspaper to attack another doctor,” Omalu said. If we continue this way, I wonder what our profession will become. All of these high-profile doctors who are connected will be shutting down younger and less connected doctors. People will be afraid to challenge authority.”

As for his own future, he said his main goal is to educate parents and children on the potential risks of playing contact sports.

“The NFL is a corporation and they have every right to make money, but I have a duty to educate the public on health risks, and especially in children. Adults who have reached the age of discretion have free will,” Omalu said.