Tag: Movie

Rudy Ruettiger discusses dreams, shares Ara Parseghian stories, and weighs in on Brian Kelly

Hear Rudy tell some truths about the movie, react to Joe Montana’s comments, and give you a general pep-talk for life as he joined the Fighting Irish Wired podcast!

The man who became an inspiration for millions who wanted to chase their dreams is coming to Chicagoland next week.  The real-life Daniel ‘Rudy’ Ruettiger, who the movie was made about, will be at Elmhurst University in the near-western Chicago suburbs on February 23.  Tickets are free but must be reserved to attend and you can get them by visiting the Elmhurst website.

When I saw that Rudy was coming to town I decided, why wait until then? I want to talk to the man now!  So for roughly a half hour on Wednesday I was able to sit down and chat via Zoom with Rudy about his story, finding and creating motivation, and hear a few stories from a man who has seen a ton.

In this episode of the newly launched “Fighting Irish Wired” podcast (yes, I spent the last month thinking of a name) hear Rudy discuss, in addition to his message of positivity:

  • His legendary high school football coach, Joliet Catholic’s Gordie Gillespie
  • What made Tom Brady so great for so long
  • The actual events that led to Rudy dressing (no, it wasn’t Joe Montana being hurt)
  • The greatness of Ross Browner
  • How Ara Parseghian used to take pressure off the team each game-week
  • How he actually introduced himself to Ara in real-life (better than the movie portrays)
  • His reaction to the comments Joe Montana made about ‘Rudy’ in recent years
  • Brian Kelly’s exit from Notre Dame

And finally, hear Rudy discuss a made-up part of the movie that would have been handled differently in real-life than it was in the movie…had it been true, at least!

Listen to and subscribe to the Fighting Irish Wired podcast on:

Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify

In full disclosure I have been working on recording a few episodes of a new podcast over the past month.  I was shaking out the cobwebs with our very own Jeff Feyerer recently so if you’re so inclined, feel free to listen back to our now very much dated episode discussing how excited Tommy Rees has to be to be leading Notre Dame’s offense in 2023 as well 😉

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The Nike Air Jordan film from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon is receiving tons of early praise

Ben Affleck’s sports drama Air is getting great early notices out of South by Southwest.

The upcoming sports drama Air had its world premiere at South by Southwest this weekend, and the early reactions are incredibly encouraging.

The dramatized telling of how Nike landed Michael Jordan for the legendary Air Jordan shoe deal comes from actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck, who directs and plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight in the project.

Affleck’s longtime collaborator and buddy Matt Damon plays Nike employee Sonny Vaccaro, who worked to get Jordan on board for the shoe deal that changed both of their lives.

Affleck showed the film at the Austin, Texas, film festival on Saturday, and the early returns are quite encouraging. Affleck and the Air team got a standing ovation from the SXSW crowd.

Affleck seemed to really hype up the importance of the film premiere in the grand scheme of his career.

In his review, Variety critic Peter Debruge called it “this generation’s Jerry Maguire.”

More reactions praised the cast, Affleck’s direction and the film’s uplifting message.

If you’re excited to check out Air, it’ll hit theaters nationwide on April 5.

Why Michael Jordan isn’t in the trailer for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Nike film ‘Air’

The movie “Air” is all about Michael Jordan’s deal with Nike. So why isn’t MJ in the film?

It seems almost counterintuitive to make a movie about the greatest sneaker deal in sports history, featuring the most marketable player in sports history, and leave that athlete almost entirely out of the script.

So you’re going to have to trust Ben Affleck and Matt Damon when it comes to their new Nike biopic “Air”. The film focuses on the quest to sign a rookie Michael Jordan to what was then a third-place company in the basketball market.

Though the trailer released on Thursday shows Viola Davis and Julius Tennon portraying Jordan’s parents, the NBA legend won’t make an appearance on screen. Not a cameo nor an actor portrayal. And that’s by design.

 

Affleck and Damon—who reworked a script originally penned by Alex Convery—are focusing less on Jordan and more on Nike execs Phil Knight (played by Affleck) and Sonny Vaccarro (Damon) as they work to build the company’s basketball brand.

Per The Hollywood Reporter:

The story will focus on Vaccaro’s relentless quest to sign Jordan to what was then the third-place shoe company, a journey that took him to Jordan’s parents, and in particular his powerful, dynamic mother, as well as to former coaches, advisers and friends. Jordan will be a mythic figure hovering above the movie and never seen, even as Vaccaro tries to reach him by gaining access to those close to him.

Jordan isn’t listed in any credits, so if there is a cameo the filmmakers are keeping it tightly under wraps. Certainly there’s enough star power attached to the project to interest Jordan, but considering the movie isn’t about MJ’s greatness, he likely doesn’t care to get involved.

Either way, fans of sneaker culture and basketball history should find themselves entertained by the story of a plucky little basketball division that took over the world.

4 quick takeaways on Netflix’s ‘Home Team’ trailer

4 quick takeaways on Netflix’s ‘Home Team’ trailer, via @MaddyHudak_94:

No one really knew what to expect in the upcoming movie “Home Team,” about Sean Payton’s year coaching his son’s football team in Texas, but the official trailer dropped Tuesday and gave us an interesting glimpse. The film is set to release on Netflix on Jan. 28, 2022 starring comedian and actor Kevin James as the New Orleans Saints head coach; produced by Happy Madison Productions, it focuses on Payton’s year in suspension from the NFL and his tenure as the assistant coach of his son’s sixth grade football team.

The production company is owned by Adam Sandler, whose brother-in-law Christopher Titone wrote the script, who also happens to be dating Payton’s daughter, Meghan, who is a sports reporter. News of the feature first dropped back in April when Peter King of “Football Morning in America” reported the scoop. He’d said at the time that Payton had recently read the script and made some corrections accordingly. Fans may recall when Sandler’s production company visited Payton at the practice facility and at some point filmed a cameo of the coach dressed rather strangely.

Now back to the trailer. Here’s what stood out and what we can look forward to in the upcoming film:

Watch the trailer for Sean Payton’s Netflix movie ‘Home Team’

Watch the trailer for Sean Payton’s Netflix movie ‘Home Team’

It’s here — well, almost. The official trailer for “Home Team,” the upcoming Netflix movie about Sean Payton’s year away from football, spent coaching his young son’s team in Texas, is live ahead of the film’s release date on Jan. 28.

The comedian and actor Kevin James stars as the New Orleans Saints head coach in the feature from Happy Madison Productions (the studio founded by James’ friend and frequent collaborator Adam Sandler, whose brother-in-law Christopher Titone wrote the script), with supporting actors including Rob Schneider, Taylor Lautner, and Isaiah Mustafa.

Payton approved the script himself and welcomed the cast to New Orleans for a visit at the team facility during the offseason, also shooting his own cameo. Maybe it’ll be worth a laugh. See the video embedded above for yourself.

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Sean Payton’s Kevin James-led Netflix movie has a release date

“Home Team,” the upcoming Netflix movie about New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton’s year-long suspension from the NFL, has a release date:

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Mark your calendars: “Home Team,” the upcoming Netflix film from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions company featuring the comedian Kevin James as New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton will be released on Jan. 28, 2022.

Christopher Titone, the film’s writer and Sandler’s brother-in-law (and boyfriend of Payton’s daughter, Meghan) shared the news on Twitter with a new plot synopsis from the Los Angeles Times:

“When Super Bowl-winning coach Sean Payton gets suspended, he returns to his hometown to coach his son’s Pop Warner team. Kevin James, Taylor Lautner and Rob Schneider star. Directed by Charles Kinnane and Daniel Kinnane. Written by Christopher Titone & Keith Blum.”

Reactions to James being cast as Payton earlier this year were, well, mixed to say the least. Sandler’s frequent collaborator doesn’t exactly share a resemblance to the Saints head coach, but we’ll suspend our disbelief for a bit if it’s a good story. If nothing else Payton’s cameo should be funny.

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Ex-NFL QB Jake Plummer excited about CFL movie role: ‘No one can take that away’

“They’re playing for the love of the game, which I really respect,” Jake Plummer said of CFL athletes.

Former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Jake Plummer is set to portray an aging Canadian Football League QB in Kick, an upcoming film.

Plummer, who grew up watching Doug Flutie and is familiar with Warren Moon’s accomplishments in the CFL, is eager to bring more exposure to Canada’s version of American’s No. 1 sport.

Plummer will lead the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on an unlikely championship run in the movie, but he won’t be the main focus of the film.

“It’s going to be about four kids, 12-year-olds coming of age, kind of finding out who they are, and going on a real fun adventure together,” Plummer said during an interview with Broncos Wire. “So I think it’s going to be a great way to expose and bring to light a league that’s got a rich history, [and] has been going on for a long time.”

Plummer never played in Canada but he does have connections in the league. While he played for the Cardinals from 1997-2002, Plummer worked out in the offseason with CFL wide receiver Travis Moore in Arizona.

“He’s a really great receiver, one of the best to play the game up there,” Plummer said. “Now I think he’s coaching in Saskatchewan, so he and I were good buddies who worked out a lot, so I knew about it [the CFL] and tried to follow it as much as I could.”

A three-time CFL all-star and two-time Grey Cup champion, Moore totaled 9,930 receiving yards and scored 79 touchdowns in 11 seasons.

Moore’s probably not well known among NFL fans, but he’s the kind of CFL player Plummer admires.

“I think it’s really cool because it’s a game that’s played not for the multi-million dollar contracts and all that,” Plummer said of the CFL. “It’s more played by a lot of people that, a lot of athletes that love the game. They’re Canadians, mostly. You can only have, like, so many Americans on your roster — only a certain percentage of the roster can be American players.

“So it’s Canadians that are playing for the pride of their country. They’re not playing for $3.5 million a year, they’re playing for — I don’t even know what the average contract is, but I know it’s not like NFL. So they’re playing for the love of the game, which I really respect.”

The CFL’s roster rules have relaxed in recent years and teams can now have 14 American starters (compared to a minimum of seven Canadian starters), but Plummer’s point about the pay stands. The NFL’s minimum salary this season is $660,000, while the CFL’s minimum is about $52,563.

CFL players clearly aren’t in it for the money, and that “love of the game” mentality is an appealing role for Plummer, especially as a grizzled vet.

“I’m not being asked to play any weird role where I’ve got to like change who I am, I just have to go out and kind of be that guy I used to be,” he said.

Plummer has always had connections to the CFL, and he’ll now get an opportunity to add his name to the history of the league (in a fictional setting).

“Marc Trestman, my offensive coordinator in Arizona with the Cardinals in ’98 when we beat the Cowboys [in the Wild Card], he’s won a few Grey Cups up there also,” Plummer recalled. “So I’ve got connections up there. I’ve had them, I just don’t go to Canada a whole lot, but I’m going to have the opportunity to go now and it’s exciting.

“Who knows what it leads to – if anything – it’s just once you’re on film and the movie’s cut and it’s out, no one can take that away. You’re in a movie.”

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LOOK: Sean Payton on set for ‘Home Team’ cameo with Kevin James

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton was spotted by TMZ Sports in costume for a cameo on the “Home Team” Netflix film set with Kevin James.

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Sean Payton’s 2012 suspension from the NFL has become the subject of a Netflix feature starring Kevin James from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, and the New Orleans Saints coach has given the team more than his blessing — he’s dressing up for a cameo, as seen in a TMZ Sports photo gallery from the “Home Team” film set.

The story centers on Payton’s experience coaching his son’s Pop Warner team while suspended following the NFL’s “Bountygate” debacle, in which the Super Bowl-winning coach dealt with frustrations like working with children and the complex single wing offense; Payton later joked about calling his mentor Bill Parcells and peer Jon Gruden for advice.

As for Payton’s cameo: we’re short on details, but he appears to be wearing a mechanic’s uniform (codename: Lionel) and one of the worst wigs I’ve ever seen. If he was trying to one-up Drew Brees’ getup for Undercover Boss a few years back, he fell far short of the mark. Maybe his acting chops can make up for it.

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Sean Payton responds to news of Kevin James’ portrayal in Netflix feature

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton briefly discussed the news of Kevin James being cast to portray him in the Netflix film “Home Team.”

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Plenty of people were caught by surprise at the announcement that Saints coach Sean Payton will be played by the actor and comedian Kevin James in “Home Team,” a Netflix movie inspired by Payton’s experience coaching his young son’s football team during his 2012 NFL suspension. But Payton wasn’t one of them.

“Listen, I’m at that age where I don’t really care,” Payton told ESPN’s Mike Triplett. James doesn’t have the greatest resemblance to Payton, now or at the time, when the Saints coach picked up a vigorous CrossFit fad. Maybe that ends up becoming a plot point.

Payton explained the backstory to Triplett; his daughter Meghan is dating Christopher Titone, brother-in-law to Adam Sandler, a friend of James’ whose Happy Madison Productions company is behind the upcoming film. Titone sold the idea to Sandler, who tasked him with putting a script together.

NBC Sports’ Peter King reported that Payton perused the script and offered some input, and Triplett adds that the Saints’ Super Bowl-winning coach has already spoken with James about being cast in the role. Payton spoke highly of James and Sandler’s past work and anticipates them to do “a great job” in adapting his story.

But he took time to point out this won’t be a beat-for-beat retelling of his experience in exile from the NFL. The focus — and much of the comedy — will be centered on a well-known coach working with a youth team just years after winning a world championship. There’s plenty of material to work with, so it’ll be fun to see how it’s all reflected through the Happy Madison lens.

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Sean Payton responds to news of Kevin James’ portrayal in Netflix feature

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton briefly discussed the news of Kevin James being cast to portray him in the Netflix film “Home Team.”

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Plenty of people were caught by surprise at the announcement that Saints coach Sean Payton will be played by the actor and comedian Kevin James in “Home Team,” a Netflix movie inspired by Payton’s experience coaching his young son’s football team during his 2012 NFL suspension. But Payton wasn’t one of them.

“Listen, I’m at that age where I don’t really care,” Payton told ESPN’s Mike Triplett. James doesn’t have the greatest resemblance to Payton, now or at the time, when the Saints coach picked up a vigorous CrossFit fad. Maybe that ends up becoming a plot point.

Payton explained the backstory to Triplett; his daughter Meghan is dating Christopher Titone, brother-in-law to Adam Sandler, a friend of James’ whose Happy Madison Productions company is behind the upcoming film. Titone sold the idea to Sandler, who tasked him with putting a script together.

NBC Sports’ Peter King reported that Payton perused the script and offered some input, and Triplett adds that the Saints’ Super Bowl-winning coach has already spoken with James about being cast in the role. Payton spoke highly of James and Sandler’s past work and anticipates them to do “a great job” in adapting his story.

But he took time to point out this won’t be a beat-for-beat retelling of his experience in exile from the NFL. The focus — and much of the comedy — will be centered on a well-known coach working with a youth team just years after winning a world championship. There’s plenty of material to work with, so it’ll be fun to see how it’s all reflected through the Happy Madison lens.

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