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Kevin James to play Sean Payton in upcoming movie

doubledragondoubledragon Posts: 23,269 ✭✭✭✭✭

This is a little bizarre, but it's true.

Sean Payton will be played by Kevin James in upcoming Netflix movie 'Home Team'

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton is getting the Netflix treatment.

NBC Sports' Peter King revealed in his "Football Morning in America" column on Monday that the streaming platform is making a movie about Payton's time coaching his son's sixth-grade football team in 2012, when he was suspended from the NFL for his role in Bountygate. The movie is called "Home Team," and we also know who will be playing Payton in the movie: Kevin James.

Yes, Kevin James of the TV show "King of Queens," and movies like "Grown Ups," "Pixels," and "Paul Blart: Mall Cop." James and Payton look ... kind of similar? A little bit?

Well, there's at least a passing resemblance. But this fact may explain James' casting a little more: the movie is being produced by Happy Madison Productions, which is Adam Sandler's production company. Happy Madison has produced eight movies James has starred or appeared in, including some of his biggest hits.

The movie is based on a true story
This plot of the movie feels like a Hollywood creation, right? A big name head coach spends a year reevaluating his life and coaching his young son's football team while he's serving a suspension for one of the NFL's most notorious scandals.

But it's true. When Payton was suspended, he served as the offensive coach for his son's football team at Liberty Christian in Argyle, Tex. (That's the same school where former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten was recently named head coach.) Payton talked about it in a 2019 Sports Illustrated interview, and mentioned how he not only wrote original plays for the team, but also used his NFL playbook as a basis for other plays.

The story might be true, but there will likely be a lot of liberties taken with the actual content. You don't cast Kevin James in a movie just to watch him get up, go to practice, coach his son's team, drive home, have dinner with his family, and go to sleep. That's normal person stuff.

You cast Kevin James because he's funny and a gifted physical comedian. James does a lot of falling down and running into things in his movies, and it doesn't seem like Payton does any of that. Or if he does, it's probably not Kevin James-level funny. The big plot points will probably remain true to life — according to King, Payton recently read the script and made a few corrections before sending it back — but we can assume we'll see some comedic set pieces that are likely made up.

The movie doesn't have a release date yet, but filming is expected to start sometime this year. Hopefully it goes quickly, because Kevin James playing Sean Payton in a movie is something the world deserves to see as soon as possible.

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