Wonderful Fun and a Grossly Underrated Film

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2001)

I had avoided this film until it was shown on HBO because my two favorite reviewers, Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin savaged it (both gave it only 2 stars out of 4). I was surprised by these ratings. This movie has many wonderful NFL inside jokes and dramatizes beautifully the stupidity of NFL owners, the selfishness of NFL players, and the greed of both. I suspect that those reviewers who underrated this film fell into one of two camps: (1) they could not stand the entirely unsympathetic depiction of the regular players who went on strike in 1987 because those reviewers believed that anybody who stands for "labor solidarity" should be treated kindly on film or, (this is more likely)(2) they know nothing, let me say that again, nothing about sports in general or the NFL in particular and they simply didn't get it. 7 out of 10. Recommended.