‘Coming to a Theater Near You: The Football Concussion Crisis Documentaries’ … today at Beyond Chron

Ed. Note. Since submitting this article, Beyond Chron contributor Muchnick has exposed on his own blog that the Head Games film was underwritten by Chicago billionaire music and technology entrepreneur Steve Devick, and is a promotional vehicle for his King-Devick sideline concussion test, which is in development.

There are a good half-dozen documentaries about the football concussion crisis in various stages of development. One deservedly getting a lot of attention is Sean Pamphilon’s United States of Football. Pamphilon is the guy with video busting the New Orleans Saints’ former “Bountygate” defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams.

But the first doc out of the gate is Head Games by director Steve James, the maker of Hoop Dreams, arguably the greatest nonfiction sports film of all time. The first of three private screenings this spring will take place Tuesday night in Chicago. The trailer can be viewed at http://www.headgamesthefilm.com.

The film’s website just changed the description of the preview screenings from “red-carpet premieres” to “private sneak peeks.” It is fair to surmise that this change was prompted, at least in part, by my reporting on the James team’s funding and on the controversial role of Alan Schwarz, whose reporting on the concussion issue for the The New York Times irrevocably elevated it in the national conversation.

I am disappointed by the trailer, which seems more like a full-length infomercial for Boston University’s Center for the Study of Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy than an aggressive examination of the untenable public health costs wrought by the National Football League, the $10-billion-a-year corporation ruling over America’s most popular sport.

CONTINUED TODAY AT BEYOND CHRON, THE SAN FRANCISCO ONLINE NEWSPAPER:

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Coming_to_a_Theater_Near_You_The_Football_Concussion_Crisis_Documentaries_10153.html