John Madden movie starting Nic Cage and Christian Bale as Al Davis

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Right...like Cinderella Man

I had to look that up, but yeah. Like that.

We should crowdsource a movie about the 1932 championship game. I think it would be a blockbuster.

[saphojunkie]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I had to look that up, but yeah. Like that.

We should crowdsource a movie about the 1932 championship game. I think it would be a blockbuster.

pitch it to me

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by saphojunkie

pitch it to me

What an epic story this is.

First, you've got a 1932 setting in Chicago as we're sliding into the worst year of the Depression and prohibition is on its last legs. The NFL was still young and in a fight for survival.

Then, you end up with a tie for the league championship so it's decided to have a one-game "playoff" for the championship, which effectively is the NFL's first-ever postseason game. It's assembled hastily, which means that ...

the Portsmouth Spartans' best player and only Hall of Famer, Dutch Clark, cannot get the day off from his day job as a basketball coach, so he has to miss the game. That's a great side plot. By the way, Clark was both the team's quarterback and top running back.

Now a blizzard comes to town. The NFL can't afford to lose paying fans, so they make a quick decision to move the game indoors to a hockey rink that has been covered in dirt. The game is played the day after a circus performs, so you have elephant manure in the turf, which is fun comic relief.

Because the game is being played on a short field, a number of on-the-fly adjustments have to be made, including not allowing field goals and adjusting the line of scrimmage constantly to mimic a 100-yard field.

On the Bears' side of the field, you've got the legends of an old Red Grange, the league's fading superstar, and a rising young star in Bronko Nagurski. That's a classic sports movie trope. Team owner George Halas is now the coach after retiring as a player the year before, and other Hall of Famers are on the roster.

The game's only score is a controversial passing touchdown that led to a major rules change the following year.

The movie practically writes itself. If you want a screenplay to pitch to the studios, let me know.