The jersey-clad players who sprint across our TV screens on Sunday afternoons have much more on their minds than the next tackle, as Eric William Morris and Ashley Rodbro’s Running Interference aims to reveal. When hopeful NFL quarterback Ryan (Jeff Todesco) first stumbles on stage, reciting plays with a pained face and a slight slur, it’s clear that the game has taken a toll on him. Things perk up for a bit when Ryan drops in on his old football buddy, Ben (Adam Petchel), his wife Jenny (Terra Mackintosh) and their teenage son Charlie (Harrison Chad). As the family reminisces with its surprise guest, the actors bring impressive depth to their characters: Mackintosh is adorably dorky as a young mom; Petchel is convincing as a fun-loving guy still holding on to his youth; and Chad is appropriately aloof. A flashback to a preseason press conference halts the fun, though, cluing us in to Ryan’s series of concussions in his time as backup QB. As he swigs a flask and pops painkillers, we hear a crackling broadcast of the voice inside his head: a persistent football coach who tries to keep Ryan’s head in the game as he teeters on the edge of a breakdown. The show’s commentary on the pressure pro athletes face to play through the pain is less than revelatory, but its ability to put a human face on the issue takes it to the goal line.—Hannah Doolin
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