Wednesday, August 09, 2006
One convincing wimpy quarterback
Flipping through the channel quide on digital cable tonight, I came across Basketball Diaries, the Leonardo DiCaprio movie with the oh-so-awful basketball scenes -- right up there with Teen Wolf and American History X for poorly executed (but hi-larious, I'm talkin' Hee-Haw funny) sports action sequences.
Anyway, this got me thinking of another flick I caught on cable on a rainy day a few weeks back: Paper Lion. Made in 1968, it's based on the George Plimpton book of the same name, in which Plimpton trained with the Detroit Lions as a reserve quarterback and actually took a few snaps during a scrimmage. I was impressed by the action scenes, particularly at the end of the movie, when the Lions scrimmage the St. Louis Cardinals. Very NFL-Films-ish. Alex Karras plays a prominent role, though he lacks the refined acting talent that would eventually shine through in his Webster days. Vince Lombardi does a cameo early on, and Jim Hart, who I recognized from my football card collecting days, quarterbacks the Cardinals.
Alan Alda, in the role of Plimpton, is one convincing wimpy quarterback, lining up to take the snap from the guard, before that gag became cliche, and generally running around like he was about to soil himself. I highly recommend checking it out.
Anyway, this got me thinking of another flick I caught on cable on a rainy day a few weeks back: Paper Lion. Made in 1968, it's based on the George Plimpton book of the same name, in which Plimpton trained with the Detroit Lions as a reserve quarterback and actually took a few snaps during a scrimmage. I was impressed by the action scenes, particularly at the end of the movie, when the Lions scrimmage the St. Louis Cardinals. Very NFL-Films-ish. Alex Karras plays a prominent role, though he lacks the refined acting talent that would eventually shine through in his Webster days. Vince Lombardi does a cameo early on, and Jim Hart, who I recognized from my football card collecting days, quarterbacks the Cardinals.
Alan Alda, in the role of Plimpton, is one convincing wimpy quarterback, lining up to take the snap from the guard, before that gag became cliche, and generally running around like he was about to soil himself. I highly recommend checking it out.
# posted by Budds @ 9:17 PM 
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Don't know if you've actually read the book, but Karras played for the Lions at the time that Plimpton joined their summer camp. However, he was not with the team as he was suspended that year for gambling.
Also, I seem to recall that the lining up behind guard incident actually happened to Plimpton, though my mind may be playing tricks on me...
Also, I seem to recall that the lining up behind guard incident actually happened to Plimpton, though my mind may be playing tricks on me...
That's funny. Alex Karras was the answer to a trivia question yesterday, which got me thinking about Webster and, now, about the best NFLers turned actors. I'm sure I'm leaving some out, but here's what I got off the top of my head:
1. OJ Simpson, Nordbergh
2. Fred Dreyer, Hunter
3. Bubba Smith, Police Academy
4. Alex Karras, Webster's Dad
5. Dick Butkus, My Two Dads
6. Bob Golic, Saved by the Bell the College Years
7. Joe Namath, as drunk guy trying to kiss Suzy Kolber (oh wait ... that was real; still, I feel like Namath tried acting at some point)
Anyway, apparently there is a good reason these guys went into football before acting, though OJ did play the role of "non-murderer" fairly convincingly in his trial.
1. OJ Simpson, Nordbergh
2. Fred Dreyer, Hunter
3. Bubba Smith, Police Academy
4. Alex Karras, Webster's Dad
5. Dick Butkus, My Two Dads
6. Bob Golic, Saved by the Bell the College Years
7. Joe Namath, as drunk guy trying to kiss Suzy Kolber (oh wait ... that was real; still, I feel like Namath tried acting at some point)
Anyway, apparently there is a good reason these guys went into football before acting, though OJ did play the role of "non-murderer" fairly convincingly in his trial.
Don't forget Jim Brown, Terry Bradshaw, and John Riggins. Another little-known fact that showed up in my IMDB search: Suge Knight was a replacement player for the Rams during the '87 strike -- a gangsta in the NFL, ahead of his time. He played at UNLV. Not sure if he was there when Randall was.
Howie Long in Firestorm (his imdb page is acutally longer than that but Firestorm was so delicious why even bother reading the rest of the list?)
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