The family of former NFL player Dave Duerson feel that he was unfairly portrayed in the “Concussion” movie.
Duerson committed suicide in 2011 and was found to have C.T.E. In the film, he’s portrayed as confronting Will Smith’s Bennet Omalu, calling him a quack, and telling him to leave football alone. It’s a characterization that Duerson’s family is taking offense to.
“They completely made up stuff,” Tregg Duerson, Dave’s son, told Ken Belson of the New York Times. “They needed a villain, someone to take the fall, and he’s not here to defend himself.”
In another scene in the movie, Duerson is seen confronting another former player, Andre Waters, after Waters had a request for benefits denied by an NFL retiree board which included Duerson. At one point, Duerson simply tells him to go see a doctor if he has a headache, and in the very next scene, a newspaper report shows that Waters committed suicide.
Tregg Duerson said that his father was put in a difficult situation and his portrayal is unfair.
“What the movie doesn’t appreciate was how difficult a position he was in,” Tregg Duerson said. “You have someone on a board with a fiduciary responsibility who can’t just give out dollars for the sake of giving out dollars. I think his hands were tied.”
This being a movie that is based on facts but not a documentary, some creative liberties were definitely taken, and director Peter Landesman was clear on that when speaking to the New York Times.
“Dave Duerson serves a very crucial metaphorical purpose — not just a player who retires and becomes part of the NFL superstructure and goes from wearing a uniform to a suit, but a man who then sits there in judgment of other players when they deserve disability payments,” Landesman said. “Then, at the end of the day, he takes his own life in the name of this disease which ravaged a lot of the men that he said no to and finds himself in the ironic position of suffering from the same fate.”
Landesman emphasized that this was a feature film meant to stir emotions, not necessarily present a strict series of facts.
Whenever a movie like this is made, someone is going to be made an antagonist and won’t like their portrayal. Remember how Art Howe felt about Moneyball? The Duerson family is right that there is certainly more to his story than the film shows and have a right to be upset. Hopefully moviegoers remember that, while the overarching story is definitely worth the time, the devil is in the details, and Duerson’s story is well worth a look on its own.
