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DVD Playmakers - The Complete Series
Playmakers grows on a viewer in the most important way a good television series should: by encouraging curiosity about the growth and fate of key characters. One might easily dismiss this ESPN original drama as a mere catalog of the problems that dog some professional football players, very often to public scrutiny: injuries, drugs, egos, criminal associations, etc. But patience rewards those who watch enough of Playmakers's 11 episodes to care about the humanity of the show's troubled athletes. The series concerns NFL contenders the Cougars, led by a hard but fair coach (Anthony John Denison) suffering from prostate cancer while dealing with a treacherous team owner (Bruce Gray), a problematic prima donna (Omar Gooding), and mid-ranked players struggling with fundamentals of the game.
Meanwhile, several Cougars emerge as major characters, among them middle linebacker Eric Olczyk (Jason Matthew Smith), a good guy psychologically impaired after paralyzing an opposing player and now trying to get both his game and life back. Olczyk's best friend, running back Leon Taylor (Russell Hornsby), is at the end of his contract and faces stiff competition for his job, causing stress that translates into a reputation-destroying act of domestic violence. Star quarterback Derek McConnell, a hound among hounds, impregnates a stranger and compels a team assistant (Stephen Bogaert) to handle abortion details. Time after time, the men of Playmakers find themselves pressured to live and function with an eye toward the team's good image and commercial prospects. Yet clean living is terribly difficult given the physical sacrifices, emotional isolation, management sabotage, and temptations foisted upon pro players. The many dramatic strings drawn out over the series come together in the very fine final episode, ending on a note of irony as outrageous as anything previously seen on television. --Tom Keogh
I had never heard about Playmakers until my wife bought it for me on DVD. I didnt know what to expect when I read about what this series was about but after the first episode I was hooked! I could not stop watching the series until I got to the final episode. The playmakers is a series that will draw you back for more after each episode and this is one of the best things I liked about this series. After one episode I had to know what was gonna happen in the next. This is what happens behind closed doors, in the looker rooms and in the real world. People dont know about these things because we are not suppose to know but this is what people want to know about and what people want to see, what really goes on. I hope that someone decides to make another season of playmakers. I will continue to hope and continue to wait and see if another season will come out.
Not Your Father's Football
What an opportunity ESPN lost when they succumbed to Paul Tagliabue's "take it off the air" threat. Playmakers is nothing short of remarkable television sports drama about a fictional NFL team "The Cougars." From the get-go, things are not what they seem and we watch as owners, management, players, media and fans try to make the world of football the scrubbed up product we watch in our homes every week. What is swept up under the carpet though is the real world, which includes drug addiction, a world of crime, cancer, homophobia, sexuality, aging, rage, racial discrimination, injury and fear. Sadly that's all the NFL seemed to see in this series. What they blinded themselves to was the show was also filled with hope, compassion, loyalty, friendship, and the bond that sports can bring between human beings.
A uniquely powerful show that should hold appeal for every football fan, but also to those with little interest in professional sports.
Now, if only another network could bravely take on a second season!
Not only were the stories "true," so were the characters
"Playmakers," ESPN's pro football drama, lasted only a single season and only eleven episodes at that. It became well known that the National Football League (read the Commissioner's office) hated the series because it provided an unrealistic (read realistic) picture of professional football. As one columnist pointed out, "Playmakers" would have had trouble putting together a second season of shows simply because it had already used pretty much every real-world NFL scandal from the past decade. But this week Baltimore Ravens running back Jamal Lewis was sentenced to four months in prison for using a cell phone to try and set up a drug deal, Terrell Owen has declared that he will be playing in the Super Bowl despite not being cleared to play by his doctor, and the Philadelphia Eagles signed veteran tight end Jeff Thomason to take a vacation from his construction job to play in the Super Bowl to replace the injured Chad Lewis on the roster. So, yes, I think that "Playmakers" could have found more things to write about.
For me the biggest adjustment with watching "Playmakers" was getting used to virtually all of the action being off the field. We were more likely to see the Cougars involved in practice than on game day, and while we recognize that staging football scenes is time consuming (and involves elements of risk for the actors), it does require viewers to make some allowances of the stories. This is because while most of the drama happens off the playing field the resolution of many of the issues can only take place during the game. But by the time you get through the first couple of episodes you understand the rules by which the series is playing and it becomes clear "Playmakers" is character driven.
The central character is #33 Leon Taylor (Russell Hornsby), a running back out of USC in his ninth season. In addition to being old by running back standards, Taylor is just back rehabilitating an injury and dealing with whether or not the team is going to give him a contract for the next season. Adding insult to injury is that the team is more than willing to give Taylor's starting position to rookie running back #39 Demetrius Harris (Omar Gooding). This eternal conflict between the veteran and the rookie is at the heart of the series, and the biggest problem I have with Harris is not that he is always breaking the speed limit or doing drugs, but that he is portrayed as one of the most cocky and arrogant rookies in the history of football. I kept waiting for middle linebacker #54 Eric Olczyk (Jason Matthew Smith) to just lay out the rookie flat during practice. But the kid's behavior is indulged, even though it seems decidedly out of place on a team that is 2-3 when he pick up the season.
While Taylor is doing steroids to get back from rehab, Olczyk is doing drugs of a different sort, anti-depressants, because the vicious hit he gave that paralyzed another player was actually a cheap shot. The team's quarterback, #11 Derek McConnell (Christopher Wiehl) is rather boring in comparison, because he is just a swinging playboy. The team's gopher and its gay defensive back are both much more interesting, as is offensive tackle #60 Kevin "The Buffalo" James (Marcello Thedford), who becomes DH's loyal sidekick, especially since we are talking about a loyalty that is abused. Head Coach Mike George (Tony Denison) is also in his 9th season, with a winning record below .500, but it is his lack of control over his team rather than his win-loss record that suggests the Cougars get somebody new.
Although "Playmakers" ends with the show's soap opera elements such as Olczyk's girl friend problems and Taylor's sportscaster try out threatening to overwhelm the ironic climax to the Cougar's season, you had to admit that ultimate the series WAS a soap opera. What mattered was that the ESPN series fleshed out the stories ripped from the headlines about spousal abuse, players bulking up beyond what is good for them, drug detox, and quarterbacks who are really great runners. Not only did we get the entire story, but also each story was told about much fuller characters than we get to know through watching the NFL (on ESPN or elsewhere). I also liked the way the characters changed over the course of the season, forcing us to reassess them. My initial sympathy for Taylor certainly waned, as did my feelings for most of the characters. In the end, maybe what was so interesting about "Playmakers" was that the characters were three-dimensional, which is certainly more than you can say for the "real" playmakers in the NFL.
Based on the perennial nonfiction bestseller by H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights looks at high school football in the harsh light of reality, finding heart and hardness while stirring our emotions. Actor-director Peter Berg (Very Bad Things, The Rundown) is Bissinger's cousin; he knows the material well, and understands how an obsession with winning turns high school kids into somber, over-pressured gladiators--expendable soldiers in a community war against shame and obscurity. The fact-based story focuses on the 1988 football season of Odessa-Permian high school in West Texas, and as a fast-paced sports movie, Berg delivers the goods with a rousing, frenetically styled crowd-pleaser. But there's darkness in this tale of weary underdogs, including an abusive father... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Billy Bob Thornton - Lucas Black (II) - Derek Luke - Jay Hernandez Director(s): Peter Berg DVD Release Date: Released the 18 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Sports documentaries don't get any better than The Last Game, which seems likely to remain the greatest film ever made about the undiluted thrill of high school football. You couldn't write a Hollywood script better than this riveting, real-life celebration of Central Bucks West--the reigning champions of Pennsylvania high school football--and the team's passionate hard-ass coach of 32 years, Mike Pettine Sr. The year is 1999, and as CB West storms its way toward an astonishing, undefeated three-season record of 45-0, we witness the many facets of an unfolding drama: star fullback Dustin Picciotti rises to prominence with an abundance of cocky self-assurance; former CB West player-turned-rival coach Mike Pettine Jr. prepares to battle his father's team in a crucial game; and... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Alex Weinress - T. Patrick Murray DVD Release Date: Released the 07 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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High school football rules in Massillon, Ohio. In this blue-collar community, dubbed "Touchdown Town" in a 1951 newsreel, the Washington High Tigers are a cradle-to-grave passion. Team boosters visit maternity wards and bestow footballs to newborn "little Tigers." A mortician offers customers Tiger theme caskets. This winning documentary, ranked by ESPN.com as among the six best sports documentaries of all time, chronicles the Tigers' pivotal 1999 season--its 106th!--in which the team's success or failure on the field could impact an upcoming tax levy to save the town's beleaguered schools. Filmmaker and Massillon native Kenneth Carlson is no mere cheerleader. He tackles the touchy issue of priorities (some parents hold promising eighth graders back so they will be bigger and stronger)... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Kenneth A. Carlson DVD Release Date: Released the 24 September 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The flashing lights and dark rooms of Las Vegas provide the backdrop for Tilt, a nine-episode ESPN series. A Mod Squad-esque trio of gamblers--Eddie (Eddie Cibrian, Baywatch Nights), Miami (Kristin Lehman, Dog Park), and Clark (Todd Williams, Lift)--maneuver through the world of high-stakes poker seeking to ruin a crooked champion player, Don "The Matador" Everest (Michael Madsen, Kill Bill, Vol. 2). The series teases out each player's backstory as they bet and bluff, trying to get enough leverage to hurt the Matador. Meanwhile, a revenge-driven Iowa sheriff (Chris Bauer, Broken Flowers) wants to put the Matador behind bars and he's not above getting dirty to do it. Strippers and brutal behind-the-scenes beatings give Tilt a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Madsen DVD Release Date: Released the 14 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Tom Berenger leads an outstanding cast in this bone-crunching dramatization of legendary college football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's debut at Texas A&M in the summer of 1954. The often unnerving story finds Bryant ducking the school's good ol' boy network of rich, influential alumni by spiriting his new team away to a makeshift training base in a tiny town called Junction. There, Bryant runs the equivalent of a POW camp, brutalizing an oversized, underdeveloped bunch of rowdy young men and tormenting those who seek medical attention for cracked spines and deadly heat exhaustion. Berenger delivers a warts-and-all performance as the vulgar, monstrous, yet much-respected Bryant, and the direction by seasoned television vet Mike Robe (Son of the Morning Star) is brisk and almost... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Mike Robe DVD Release Date: Released the 09 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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