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Consussion (2015), the story of Dr. Bennett Omalu (Will Smith) and his discovery of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) as it pertains to professional football players, doesn’t cast the NFL in a very positive light. The film invites much discussion about its facts, its representation of those facts, what it may have left out, what it may have fabricated, and what it may have elaborated. More importantly, whether or not the all-powerful NFL was able to use their massive influence to manipulate the story in any way, much as they manipulated details of Omalu’s findings, which is one of the film’s main narrative threads.

Citations are naturally conflicted on the matter—the filmmakers, specifically director Peter Landesman, say the NFL had no interaction with the film whatsoever. In an interview with Collider, who deftly approached the subject through the realm of rights and logos, Landesman responded by saying, “we didn’t work with the NFL even a lick. There was a meeting that was going to happen and it never happened. The NFL is not our story. The NFL is not our problem.” He elaborated that the use of logos and team names doesn’t need cleared as it falls under fair use for filmmaking, but his stance that the NFL had no involvement whatsoever implies the product was untouched by their hands.

Landesman furthered that sentiment in a carefully-phrased sentence to The New York Times, saying, “There was never an instance where we compromised the storytelling to protect ourselves from the N.F.L.”

What he refers to are unrealiably-sourced hacked emails between Sony Pictures and the NFL which, as the Times says, “discussed how to avoid antagonizing the N.F.L. by altering the script and marketing the film more as a whistle-blower story, rather than a condemnation of football or the league.” They suggest unflattering moments were removed from the script and the bite against the NFL was softened. The story has since proven a misstep for the Times, and Sony called it a “misstep” as it was written without anyone at the Times having seen the film and based on stolen emails. Sony responded, saying, “as will become immediately clear to anyone actually seeing the movie, nothing with regard to this important story has been ‘softened’ to placate anyone.” The Times article remains alive on their website, furthering public confusion about the title’s authenticity.

Landesman (who also wrote the film and has a background in journalism) feels the studio never catered to the demands of the league, but ensured they represent the characters and details accurately. Creative license was not his goal—the details of Omalu’s findings and the facts of the matter are dramatic enough in their own right.

Deadspin has a different take on the situation, boasting the headline “How Sony Changed Concussion To Make The NFL (Or Their Lawyers) Happy.”

They, among many other websites, cite differences in the film’s original September 2014 production draft (leaked in the Sony hack) to the finished product as evidence of Sony catering to the NFL’s demands. The claim is speculative, as any number of reasons could exist for changing a production draft in a year’s time. But Deadspin’s argument is that most of the changes water-down defamatory statements against the NFL or the severity of their negligence and complicity, and the coincidence of them all being unaffected by the league’s touch is too much to bear. (See their comparisons here.)

Salon writes, “In the screenplay for Concussion, Landesman felt at liberty to invent conversations long after the fact that could not be documented, or to compress multiple events into a few illustrative examples. He did not, he says, pursue the tactic of Chris Terrio’s Oscar-winning screenplay for Argo (2012), which took the true story of the Iranian hostage and fictionalized it extensively. ‘Those are very different cases,’ Landesman says. ‘I happen to know that film has a very limited relationship to what really happened. I can assure you that is not the case here.’ As for his interactions with the NFL while making the film, Landesman says there were virtually none. ‘We set up a meeting at the NFL’s offices, and I simply decided not to go. That was the journalist in me, looking to be fair and to hear statements from all sides. What I realized was that the only agenda I would be serving at that meeting was theirs, and I didn’t need to do that. I understood how [the league] had responded to Dr. Omalu and the whole question [of brain injury]. The record was clear. I didn’t need their permission to use clips [from NFL games] or to tell the story. I simply couldn’t see any reason to do it.’

As CNN reports, the NFL has publicly released positive statements about the film. The events of Omalu’s CTE findings are well known at this point (they happened in 2002), and multiple changes have been put in place to protect players. “We welcome any conversation about player health and safety,” said the NFL. “Broader and deeper awareness of these issues will positively impact all athletes. The NFL has made numerous changes to the game to enhance the health and safety of players at all levels of football. These include nearly 40 rule changes in the last decade, strict concussion protocols, and better training and sideline medical care.”

Sportscaster Bob Costas said, “I have seen the movie. As one who has followed, and commented on, this issue, it doesn’t appear to me many punches were pulled.”

There are two issues at hand with all these angles: Whether the NFL directly encouraged the filmmakers to remove or dilute certain parts of the script, or if the filmmakers did so out of fear of NFL retaliation. Both are equally detrimental to the film’s journalistic integrity, and the reality of each remains mostly unclear. Whether or not the NFL truly influenced the production of Concussion is likely a matter we’ll never entirely know, but as audience members with opposing information available, people are free to make their own decisions. Regardless, the message is out there and the information has been presented, so the film’s purpose is likely to find success either way.