This week's Monday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and the San Francisco 49ers is notable for a distressing stat: Both teams' starting quarterbacks, Jay Cutler of the Bears and Alex Smith of the 49ers, will miss the game because of the effects of concussions they suffered recently.
To which documentary filmmaker Steve James might say: "I told you so."
James's 2012 documentary "Head Games," sad to say, is becoming more timely every week. The film about the prevalence of concussions and head injuries in professional and youth sports, particularly football, paints a devastating picture of a climate in which repeated concussions have been downplayed, ignored or shrugged off for decades, despite growing evidence of the long-term effects on athletes.