The NFL also does a tremendous job of keeping itself on
the sports pages even during the offseason. You have periods of free
agent signings, the big annual scouting combine in Indianapolis at which
invited prospects can strut their stuff in front of scouts, "pro days"
during which individual players display their wares on their own college
campuses in front of another host of scouts, contract renewals of
players with their own team, and trades. But the offseason day which
holds the fascination of pro football fans every spring is "draft day,"
the day (now, evening prime time) on which the first round of the NFL
draft of college players is conducted in Manhattan's Radio City Music
Hall. The day, which this year falls on May 8, has justifiably been
called one of the two biggest non-playing days on the sports calendar
(the other being NCAA basketball's Selection Sunday in March).
The movie Draft Day successfully renders the
aura and spectacle of the event. Kevin Costner plays Sonny Weaver, Jr.,
the beleaguered general manager of the Cleveland Browns. He has a
hands-on owner (Frank Langella) who loves being in the spotlight
concomitant with having the first overall pick in the draft, and an
irascible coach (Denis Leary as Coach Perm) who can't help showing off
the Super Bowl ring he won as an assistant with the Cowboys before being
hired by Sonny's predecessor as the Brown's head coach. Of course, the
reason the Browns have the first pick in the draft is because they were
the worst of the thirty-two NFL teams last season. Sonny's job is to
fix that; he can't afford to make a mistake with his pick.
As the GM of the team with the first overall pick,
Sonny is constantly on the phone, listening to offers from other GMs who
want to make a deal. It is an interesting relationship, and makes one
wonder if there is any honor among thieves. Most GMs would lie to their
mother to gain the upper hand in a deal. Some are ethical and
trustworthy but many are scoundrels. Professional courtesies only extend
so far. To add to the pressure, Coach Perm does not want the team to
draft the consensus top college quarterback, cocky Bo Callahan (Josh
Pence) from Wisconsin, because Perm hates working with rookies, and
besides, he likes the QB the Browns already have, veteran Brian Drew
(Tom Welling).
Jennifer Garner plays Ali, the Browns' salary cap
wonk by day, Sonny's secret girlfriend by night. The few comic moments
in the film include the couple's periodic rendezvous in a small
equipment closet close to Sonny's office. They are usually interrupted
by the geeky new intern, Rick (Griffin Newman). Luckily those moments
were short enough to allow the story to keep going. Time can't be
wasted and the countdown clock is always ticking.
As I've written on a few other occasions, I enjoy
works of fiction which use real persons, places and things as opposed to
fabricated locales or organizations. This is a strong point of Draft Day.
The Browns and the other teams involved in the story, like the Seattle
Seahawks, the Houston Texans, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo
Bills, are real NFL franchises. There are several cameo appearances by
such NFL and television luminaries as ESPN's Chris Berman and Jon
Gruden, Commissioner Roger Goodell, and former players Neon Deion
Sanders and the great Jim Brown. The viewer feels like she is truly
behind the scenes on one of the sport's biggest stages.
One additional "plus" is that there is not much time
at all spent showing action on the field of play; just a few clips of
highlights regarding three or four prospects. Interpretation of the
dialogue does not require any prior knowledge of football jargon. One
does not have to be a pro football fan to enjoy the story. Wheeling and
dealing and verbal confrontations take place in many kinds of
businesses. The business at hand in this movie happens to be
professional football, which makes it all the more interesting.
Draft Day has been compared in some respects to 2011's Moneyball,
to which I also gave a (pre-blog) rating of A-. While the older film
was a little more technical, the comparison is a good one. Both movies
are about dashing general managers (Weaver played by Costner, and "real
life" Oakland A's GM Billy Beane played by Brad Pitt) who try to
outmaneuver their rival counterparts, while at the same time having
conflicting philosophies vis-a-vis their head coach/manager (Coach Perm
played by Leary, and "real life" A's manager Art Howe played by the late
Philip Seymour Hoffman). Regrettably, both movies also contain a
totally needless side story. In Draft Day it's Weaver's relationship with his annoying widowed mother (Ellen Burstyn); in Moneyball
it's Beane's relationship with his twelve year old daughter. If you
are into do-it-yourself double features, those two movies together would
make a great pairing.
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