Home Team: The True Story Of Sean Payton And The Warriors Behind The Netflix Movie
Kevin James is the coach who made American football history by leading the New Orleans Saints to Super Bowl victory: but this biopic tells a particular (and very painful) period in his life, which occurred during the suspension from the NFL.
On January 25, 2022, a sensational farewell in the world of American football took place: Sean Payton, the most important manager in the history of the Saints, left New Orleans after 16 seasons and the historic Super Bowl XLIV won in Miami 31-17 against the favorites Indianapolis Colts. Ironically, three days after the announced divorce, the film Home Team, the sports comedy by Charles and Daniel Kinnane with Kevin James as the Illinois coach, arrives on Netflix. In reality, Home Team is not a canonical biopic made to tell a “bigger than life” personality.
Behind the “feel-good movie” produced by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison, there is a particular episode in Payton’s life: a true story of sport and redemption, a small and great enterprise useful for transmitting values such as commitment, honesty above all to children. and motivation.
Home Team: The Plot Of The Movie
It’s February 7, 2010, and Sean Payton has achieved a fantastic goal: he brought the New Orleans Saints, NFC champions and their first Super Bowl appearance, to win the ring. That joy does not last long. Two years later, in fact, one of the biggest scandals in NFL history broke out: the Bountygate. A National Football League investigation reveals that the Saints pay “bounties” (bounties) to several players to deliberately injure and injure opponents on the pitch.
Payton knew, but he kept his mouth shut. As head coach, he is then held accountable and suspended for one year. He cannot coach the team or communicate with his players. Sean appeals and while waiting for her, he returns to Argyle, Texas, where his son Connor (Tait Blum) and ex-wife Beth (Jackie Sandler) live with her new boyfriend, the hottie Jamie (Rob Schneider).
Con plays football: he is part of the Warriors, a shabby 12-year-old team coached by up-and-coming Troy Lambert (Taylor Lautner) and drunkard Mitch Bizone (Gary Valentine). The Warriors hold a curious record: during the season they have not won a single match and they have not even managed to score a touchdown.
Payton’s goal is to find himself and re-establish a relationship with Connor. Father and son have not seen each other for a long time and Sean is missing the most important moments of Con’s growth. The only way he can reconnect with him is to “offer himself” as his team’s offensive coordinator. Thus begins the ascent of the Warriors to the top of the North Central Texas championship, not without problems.
Home Team: The True Story Of Sean Payton And The Warriors
From the title, Home Team refers to Payton’s personal story. The coach talked about how his team came to conquer the Super Bowl in Home Team: Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life, an autobiographical book that immediately became a New York Times bestseller.
The “underdog story” of the Netflix movie is based on real events in Payton. Head coach in New Orleans since 2006 and fresh from a Super Bowl victory through the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the manager was going through a stressful and turbulent time during the NFL suspension for the Bountygate.
The federation investigation had revealed a real bonus system: about twenty defensive players of the Saints received payments between 1,000 and 1,500 dollars (depending on the blow inflicted on the opponent, by replacement or by complete knockout) which doubled or tripled during the playoffs.
Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, the main architect of this “scheme”, had been suspended for a year, while Payton for the entire 2012 season. With no salary or professional obligations, the head coach rolled up his sleeves and left. returned to Dallas to spend more time with his two children, Meghan and Connor.
Payton’s wife is really called Beth Shuey – the two divorced in 2012. Went to Argyle to watch his son play, Sean ended up becoming the offensive coordinator of Con’s middle school football team. Troy Lambert’s character really exists he’s called Brennan Hardy and he’s the real coach of the Warriors. His boys, however, weren’t that bad: the meteoric rise from last place in the playoffs is pure fiction. Even if the scoreboard that goes out when you are down by 40 points is a reality.
The coach revealed in an interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he actually used a simplified version of the Saints playbook as seen in the film (explaining football not with tortillas but with stones and bottle caps) and the Liberty Christian Warriors. they have remained seriously undefeated for a long time. They only lost towards the end of the regular season to a “single-wing” formation, the Springtown Porcupines.
The phone call that Payton makes to his mentor Bill Parcells (to play him in the film is the former linebacker and historical coach Bill Cowher) really happened: Sean called him to understand with which scheme he can beat the opponents. When they found themselves in the championship finals, the Warriors still lost but in a much more close-knit game than the first.
Kevin James’ choice to play Payton is not accidental. The actor is a football fan, he practiced it from running back to high school and college, where he was also part of the wrestling team with Mick Foley, winner of 27 titles (including four world titles) during his amazing and extreme WWE wrestling career. The only difference with Sean is that Kevin, born and raised in upstate New York, has always been a huge fan of the Jets.
Football fans recognize two other familiar faces in the Home Team cast, obviously as themselves: sports reporter Dan Patrick and commentator Jim Nantz. In the last scene, finally, there is really him, the real Sean Payton: it’s Lionel, the cleaner who welcomes the coach back as a blessing because “we suck without you”.
