BEFORE: Well, the linking is driving the bus right now. There's no other way for me to link out of "Fire in the Sky" - well, there ARE other paths but none of them get me to "Barbie" on May 1, which is a signpost on the road to my Mother's Day films. But it's not even close to football season, right? When is that, September through February, with pre-season in August? Ugh, I'm way off. Plus it's college football, that season is even shorter, maybe, September through January? I have no idea what a college football schedule looks like, because I went to NYU, which didn't even have a football team.
But wait, isn't there something football-related going on this week? The NFL Draft? That's related to college football players, isn't it? No, really, I want to know. They're drafting college players into the NFL? Huh, maybe the chain knows what it's doing after all. Today's film is dedicated to the hard-working people who bring you the very necessary (?) NFL Draft. But this is neither a paid promotion or an endorsement of their event, it's all just a coincidence.
Craig Sheffer carries over from "Fire in the Sky". From drag queens to football players in under a week, that's the scope of films featured here at the Movie Year.
THE PLOT: Players from different backgrounds try to cope with the pressures of playing football at a major university - some turn to drinking, others to drugs and some to studying.
AFTER: This film follows the exploits of the Timberwolves, from the very fictional E.S.U., or Eastern State University. Umm, what state is this college in? Exactly. Let's call it AnyState U.S.A., designed to appeal to the maximum percentage of the population. They play against Michigan at one point, also Georgia Tech later in the film. What conference does that put them in? I also have zero idea how all that works - the Yellow Jackets are in the NCAA Atlantic Coast conference, and the Michigan Wolverines are in the Big Ten, so I'm guessing there would never be a team that plays against both of those opponents. But at the end of the day, I don't really know, so let's proceed as if it's possible.
Pretty much every stereotype about college football players that was prevalent in 1993 is represented here, from the jocks being allowed to take easy courses to maintain a good GPA, practically being given the answers to their exams or having other people take the tests for them. Then there's the Heisman trophy-eligible quarterback who has a drinking problem and has to miss crucial games to go to rehab after a DUI. Sorry, no trophy for him. Don't forget about the enormous defense tackle who wants to buy his mother a house but instead suffers a career-ending injury, and the other defensive end who's CLEARLY using steroids because his idea of a fun time is putting his head through car windows in the parking lot, but the coaching staff turns a blind eye to his fake urine samples because they need him in the starting defensive line. Good times.
This is also the film that sparked some controversy by having a scene where athletes demonstrate how cool they are under pressure by lying down on the highway median with cars passing by very closely on both sides. After a few teens tried to imitate these actions in real life, the scene was removed from the film. OK, but they left in the scene where QB Joe Kane stands in a railyard with a train approaching and plays chicken with it, jumping out of the way at the last possible second. But no, he's completely sane, nothing to worry about there.
This was also a chance for tough-guy actor James Caan, formerly of "The Godfather" and "Rollerball", to show his softer (?) side as a football coach, dealing with players who get into every kind of trouble possible. He's not quite at the level of Robin Williams' character in "Good Will Hunting" saying "it's not your fault", but it's kind of in the same ballpark. And supposedly Coach Winters is going to be fired if ESU doesn't have a winning season or at least get into a Bowl game, so sure, that justifies all kinds of looking the other way, doesn't it? The alumni are slipping envelopes of cash to the players, the recruiters are promising all kinds of things that the college has no intention of following through with, and everyone's wondering why their car windows are shattered every time they park near the stadium.
You don't even have to know a lot about football to follow this one, like I think the team with the most points wins or something, but I don't want to get all technical about it. It's more important that you deal with all the personal problems that the best players are having, because if you don't you may not have enough people to be on the field and then you probably forfeit the game. Just guessing, but you can see why it's important that Kane gets out of rehab and Darnell passes his history test and not too many people get their legs broken, if you just look at the big picture for a minute. Football is a numbers game, after all.
Speaking of which, it appears the whole landscape has changed since 1993, in that it used to be 100% forbidden for college athletes to get paid, instead they were offered scholarships to attend school, as long as they kept playing their sport. Getting injured and being unable to play on could make the scholarship go away, I think? Not sure. But then a number of lawsuits in 2009 made it easier for college athletes to get compensated for the use of their "NIL", or name, images and likeness. But only by third parties like NIke or Gatorade, and not by the schools themselves, which are limited by NCAA rules to only providing scholarships and an additional $6,000 or so for "education-related expenses" per athlete annually. (I wonder if alcohol counts as an "education-related expense".). It's still against the rules for a college to buy a football player a car to get them to attend their institution, but progress takes time I suppose.
Also starring James Caan (last seen in "That's My Boy"), Halle Berry (last seen in "Moonfall"), Omar Epps (last seen in "Scream 2"), Kristy Swanson (last seen in "8 Heads in a Duffel Bag"), Abraham Benrubi (last heard in "Strange World"), Duane Davis (last seen in "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas"), Andrew Bryniarski (last seen in "Scooby-Doo"), Leon Pridgen, Jon Pennell (last seen in "Heartbreak Ridge"), J.C. Quinn (ditto), Joey Lauren Adams (last seen in "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot"), Rhoda Griffis (last seen in "The Last Song"), Steven Griffith, Michael Flippo (last seen in "Something to Talk About"), Ernest Dixon, George Rogers, Bernard Mixon, Mary Holloway, George Nannarello, Jason Byce, Mindy Bell (last seen in "The Watcher"), Jim Fyfe (last seen in "A Kiss Before Dying"), Jason Jenks, Bob Neal (last seen in "Remember the Titans"), Jed Oldenburg, Bo Schembechler, Robert Fuller, Al Wiggins (last seen in "Nell"), Lynelle Lawrence, Julia Miller, Patrick Robert Smith, Dan Hannafin (last seen in "Patch Adams"), Charles Portney, John Bennes (last seen in "I Know What You Did Last Summer"), Charles Lawlor (last seen in "October Sky"), Robert D. Raiford (last seen in "The Rage: Carrie 2"), Steve Zabriskie with cameos from Chris Berman, Lynn Swann.
RATING: 6 out of 10 cups of Gatorade spilled
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