Sony Did Their Best To Not Piss Off The NFL With Their "Concussion" Movie And Deleted Scenes That Made It Look Bad
(Source) — The marketing of the movie was reportedly altered to accentuate the tale of a whistleblower (real life doctor Bennet Omalu) instead of making it a condemnation of the sport. Said Dwight Caines, Sony Pictures’ president of domestic marketing:
“Will is not anti football (nor is the movie) and isn’t planning to be a spokesman for what football should be or shouldn’t be but rather is an actor taking on an exciting challenge. We’ll develop messaging with the help of N.F.L. consultant to ensure that we are telling a dramatic story and not kicking the hornet’s nest.”
Just days earlier, an email confirmed that moments that were “unflattering for the NFL” were either changed or deleted. One of Sony’s top lawyers took “most of the bite” out of the flick, in part because of “legal reasons with the NFL.”
Peter Landesman, who both wrote and directed the movie, stated:
“We’re just being smart because any large corporation will design a response to something it considers to be a threat to its existence. We don’t want to give the N.F.L. a toehold to say, ‘They are making it up,’ and damage the credibility of the movie.”
I’m not even mad at the NFL here, as the NFL is gonna be the NFL. This is their modus operandi. They’re big business. They’re Big Tobacco or the mafia: they threaten and try to scare others from muddying their name. They did it with ESPN over League of Denial and they did it again with ESPN with Playmakers. It’s just what they do, they threaten corporations that might paint them in a bad light and make it all go away. And it always works.
But Sony? Come the fuck on. You’re trying to tell a story of a real man who discovered a disease and you’re bowing down to placate the NFL? What kind of credibility do you expect to keep after that? You deleted scenes and changed things in order to avoid upsetting the league? That’s nonsense. At least ESPN depends on them to make a living, what the fuck do you do with them? Where are Sony and the National Football League connected? If you want to tell a real story then tell it, don’t ask mom and dad for permission first. And you thought all those racist emails would be the worst thing to come out of that cyber attack.
Oh, and if this is the version that the NFL approved then what the fuck was it really like? Because even that trailer is baaaaaaaddddd.