Concussion Page #8

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 36A.

The sun sinks. The moon moves across the sky. The sun rises.

Bennet still doesn’t move, staring at pages.

Now looks up to-

CHRIS BERMAN’S VOICE (OVER)

(play-by-play growl)

Okay, your turn, Tom Jackson!

(MORE)

Who’s gonna get JACKED UP tonight?!

(and now WE’RE WATCHING--)

CHRIS BERMAN’S VOICE (OVER) (CONT'D)

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 37. CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 37.

54 ESPN MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL PRE-GAME

Bennet before his TV: HOST CHRIS BERMAN and his chorus of

three retired PLAYERS. Berman points to former Broncolinebacker TOM JACKSON.

TOM JACKSON:

Well, somebody’s going to getjacked up tonight!

(and now we PUSH THROUGH TVand we’re 4-walling--)

The animated intro to the segment: “ESPN’S JACKED UP! ...

brought to you by Texas Instruments”. Now we’re-INSIDE

QUALCOMM STADIUM, SAN DIEGO

TOM JACKSON (OVER)

Rams - Chargers. Quarterback MarkBulger is going to deliver the ballto Tony Fisher-Rams’

RECEIVER looks back for the ball, is totally decimatedby a forearm shiver to the head. The crowd goes nuts-TOM

JACKSON (OVER) (CONT’D)

Donnie Edwards just LEVELS him--!

And the head in SLO-MO seems to break off at the neck.

TOM JACKSON (OVER) (CONT’D)ALL THE ANNOUNCERS (OVER)

(call--)(--response)

Tony Fisher got--JACKED! UP!

(and--) (now BACK TO--) *

55 BENNET’S CONDO. PREMA’S POV OF BENNET AT THE MICROSCOPE

Slides stacked in groupings: Beta-A4 amyloid peptide; CD-68;

GFAP; Luxol-Fast Blue; Tau. Bennet loads slide after slide--

COACH’S VOICE (PRE-LAP)

(screaming!)

Only way to get that player's handsoff you is grab him by the throatand squeeze -choke him til sh*t

runs down his leg!

(and now cut to a--)

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 38.

56 COLLEGE-LEVEL PRACTICE FOOTBALL FIELD

TIGHT on a pair of players. The bigger of the two stabbing

jabbing RAMMING his palm into the throat of the other,

gripping, release, grip, release, over and over until the

other goes down and lies broken. Now we--

Bennet slips into our extreme f.g., taking this in, then

turning, and the field morphs and we-

57 FIND BENNET ON THE PERIPHERY OF A LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL FIELD

Watching fifty 14-year olds doing wind-sprints. Joyful.

They’re ribbing each other. Boys. Then. Whistle blows. And

every player unleashes on someone anyone to hit/spear with

the crowns of their helmets. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Like

gunshots echoing from all corners. Now-

58 BACK IN BENNET’S LIVING ROOM - TIGHTER ON THE TV

Bennet watching tape of a pro training camp. Lumbering

lineman running laterally to stretch a play. Linebacker

spears helmet into face, to crack jaw and neck. And back to-

59 BENNET AT THE LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL FIELD

It’s been 60 seconds. The kids still randomly head-ramming. A

few of them here and there staggering off. Now back to-

60 THE LIBRARY THAT IS NOW BENNET’S CONDO

Every surface stacked with books, journals. “Traumatic

cerebral hemorrhage. Neurology and Psychiatry, 1929.”

Bennet’s midnight-to-dawn sessions INTERCUT with Prema

watching NFL games. Steelers, Raiders, Dolphins. CRACK!

Bennet glancing only at the SOUND of helmets crashing.

Prema studying the game, the strategy. The quarterbacks

scrambling for their lives, slipping from the clutches of

pursuers, launching passes that float impossibly into the

hands of full-sprint receivers 50 yards away.

PREMA:

(to Bennet somewhere else

in the condo)

Oh wow-(

new fan; as she’s clearing

the table)

(MORE)

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 39.

PREMA (CONT'D)

You should watch this, Bennet.

(as he lifts his head to-)

BIG POWER RUNNING BACK (ND college) spins sliding to daylight

outrunning an entire defense as if they are standing still.

PREMA (CONT’D)

It’s actually really beautiful!

Bennet!

Of crisp sunny days and long shadows and end-zone glory.

Victory dances. Cheerleaders. Spectacle.

Of big men wrestling in the mud, reaching down to pull up

comrades. Of stands boiling with ecstasy.

There’s all that too. And we’re back in love with the game-

PREMA (CONT’D)

Tommy Maddox is the most underrated

quarterback in the League!

(because she’s watching)

The TV, where the Steelers are winning a Wild Card Playoff

game against the Browns 36 - 33. “No time outs, they have no

time outs left!” And Prema is hooked. While Bennet, inside

his head, goes-

BENNET’S POV/WHAT HE’S SEEING

An ANIMATION OF the deceleration of a football head. Helmet

colliding with a knee. Head halted abruptly. But the brain,

floating in fluid, keeps going, smashing into the inner

skull, as a rubber ball might when smashed by a racquet.

And our animated head - 4-walled - morphs in Bennet’s POV

into the armored and caged head of Mike Webster. He’s bent

over. The other 20 players vanish, and it’s just him and

Bradshaw. Endless repetitions. Hut-snap. Hut-snap. It’s a

kind of clinic. This is how it’s done. The two of them a

single organism, and BAM! And now-

It’s game time, and the field is full, the stands are full,

and Webster is nut-cracked between two defensive linemen. And

there’s Webster’s rubber-ball brain boing-boinging off the

skull, skull off helmet, helmet off other helmet. And we

REVERSE and we’re looking at--

Bennet. Studying the TV. Where there’s now-

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 40.

62 TV FOOTAGE OF VETERANS STADIUM, PHILADELPHIA

Eagles punter alone in backfield, about to kick. Two Jaguars

special team backs full-sprint from pincher angles-

TOM JACKSON (OVER)

Now I really love this one. Jorge

Cordova and Brian-

The backs arrive same time. Helmets into chest and throat.

Punter, crushed, stiffens, as if Tasered, drops-

TOM JACKSON (OVER) (CONT’D)ALL THE ANNOUNCERS (OVER)

And Dirk Johnson--GOT! JACKED! UP!

(then back to--)

63 BENNET AT THE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FIELD

It’s been 90 seconds. Bennet is simply walking away as the

turf is like a battlefield of the exhausted.

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