Sony Pictures decided to soften the stance against the NFL in the upcoming film "Concussion."

In dozens of studio emails unearthed by hackers, Sony Pictures executives; the director, Peter Landesman; and representatives of Will Smith discussed how to avoid antagonizing the NFL by altering the script and marketing the film more as a whistle-blower story, rather than a condemnation of football or the league.

“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,” Dwight Caines, the president of domestic marketing at Sony Pictures, wrote in an email to three top studio executives about how to position the movie. “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.”

Another email noted that some “unflattering moments for the NFL” were deleted or changed, while in another correspondence, a top Sony lawyer is said to have taken “most of the bite” out of the film “for legal reasons with the NFL and that it was not a balance issue.” Another string of emails discuss an aborted effort to reach out to the NFL.