The Working Class Football & Philadelphia Life

Rating: 8/10 (4 March 2011)

I'll have to admit bias on this one. Not so much because I grew up a Philadelphia Eagles fan, but because even more than that I am a huge fan or the underdog and outsider. Even better, Invincible is based on a true story of a man walking on to his hometown NFL team.
In the drab and recession-laden mid-1970s, the lowly Philadelphia Eagles are so bad that their new head coach, Dick Vermeil, announces team tryouts open to the public on live TV. While every Eagles fan and football-obsessed yahoo in town lines up, one standout athlete, a 30 year old bartender named Vince Papale is good enough to make the team and go pro.
In a style reminiscent of Rocky, the film's character struggles not only with his past failures amidst a new challenge of making the cut day-by-day, but he also grapples with his new role as a star and outcast in his own microcosm of working class Philadelphia life.
Greg Kinnear and Mark Wahlberg are both convincing in their roles, and even if you're a Giants or Cowboys fan, you will be inspired to root for Papale as the underdog that delivers on game day.
written by Andy Frye, MySportsComplex.blogspot.com