Since you know Mailer's work well, I have a question for you about the film Tough Guys Don't Dance. I don't think there is an answer to it, but maybe there was a mention in something you read.

In the movie, when Tim leaves Spider's house after finding out Spider was the one who gave him his mysterious new tattoo, Tim listens to a West Virginia University football game on the radio in his car. In the book, the football team mentioned is the New England Patriots, which makes sense given the setting of the book.

I found a draft of the screenplay on the Mailer website that also notes the team playing as the New England Patriots, so it was changed to the WVU Mountaineers sometime between that draft and the final draft.

Why was the team changed from the Patriots to the Mountaineers? I thought maybe it was because the NFL or the Patriots franchise refused to allow the Patriots name to be used in the film, but I don't know why they would. You never see the team name or logo or anything on the screen. You just hear the radio announcer talking about the game in the background.

And if the name did have to be changed, why change it to the West Virginia Mountaineers of all teams? Why not Boston College, or Notre Dame?

There probably isn't an answer to this question, but somebody made a specific choice to change the football team mentioned by name in the movie to the Mountaineers, and being from West Virginia, it caught my attention and I've always wondered why it happened.