Weitzman strongly disagrees
and takes issue with those who
think that football players are
protected too much.
“I’m a long-time football fan,
but I don’t think the game’s got-
ten soft.” said Weitzman. “The
players are so much bigger and
so much faster than they used
to be which means the colli-
sions have exponentially more
g-force. Those brains are rattling
violently inside their skulls. On
the other hand, I don’t think the
rule changes do all that much to
make football safer. Sub-concus-
sions--which can happen with
just a defensive and offensive
lineman hitting each other--are
cumulative. It’s not just the sen-
sational, high-speed collisions
that cause lasting damage.”
Theatrical plays about sports
have a checkered past. Suc-
cessful ones include works like
Golden Boy, Damn Yankees,
That Championship Season, and
NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 6
Lombardi. The number of fail-
ures greatly outweigh the suc-
cesses. In fact, in 2012 The New
Yorker examined the difficul-
ties of bringing sports on stage
in a piece entitled, “Why Can’t
Broadway Make A Good Sports
Play?” Yet Weitzman sees sports
as an opportunity for him and
for good reason. Prior to play-
writing, he wrote and produced
sports documentaries and nar-
ratives for television and new
media for the National Basket-
ball Association Entertainment,
Speedvision, Emerald City, and
CybrCard. He has written plays
about basketball (Spin Moves),
baseball (The Catch), football
(Get Thorpe, Stadium 360) and
has a play in progress (Sacrifice)
about sexual abuse in a big-time
college sports program.
“I do think it’s a niche,” said
Weitzman. “Plays with sports
content or theme are obviously
far more prevalent in film be-
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