Trivia
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Cameo (1)
Shark Stadium, where the fictitious Miami Sharks play, is actually the Orange Bowl Stadium, in Miami, Florida.
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When Willie Beamen enters Tony D'Amato's house, the movie that is on TV is Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston, who also appears in Any Given Sunday as the Commissioner. Oliver Stone says on the commentary that the meta connection was deliberate, and meant to show that yesterday's rebels become the establishment. Charlton Heston agreed to appear in the film and granted permission for his image in Ben-Hur to be used.
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At one point, film is playing and shows Johnny Unitas on TV. Later he is the opposing coach.
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Cameron Diaz plays the daughter of a sports team owner, just as she did in My Best Friend's Wedding.
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When Barry Switzer is the broadcaster for the playoff game in Dallas, a player bumps an official and Barry yells out, "He hit an official." When Barry Switzer was coaching the Dallas Cowboys against the San Francisco 49ers in the 1994 NFC Championship game, he was penalized 15 yards for bumping an official.
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As Oliver Stone is a San Francisco 49ers fan, there are a number of references to San Francisco winning the championship game against the Sharks.
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Much of the information in the movie is based on the book, "You're Okay, It's Just a Bruise: A Doctor's Sideline Secrets About Pro Football's Most Outrageous Team," by Rob Huizenga.
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Director Oliver Stone tried and failed to get the National Football League's permission to use real NFL team logos and stadiums for the film.
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When Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) is in the bar, the pictures on the wall are all of people in the movie. On the bottom row are "Cap" Rooney (Dennis Quaid) and Jim Brown. Featured in the top row are Oliver Stone, Al Pacino, and Cameron Diaz.
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Sean Combs was cast as Willie Beaman, but dropped out because of scheduling conflicts with his recording career.
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Director Oliver Stone's first two choices to play Tony D'Amato were Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Although De Niro declined the role, Pacino had already accepted.
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According to Cuba Gooding Jr., he met with Oliver Stone about playing the role of Willie Beamen but Stone turned Gooding down because he had already played a football player in Jerry Maguire.
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A Warner Bros. favorite, Clint Eastwood was sought after for Al Pacino's role early on. However, he also wanted to direct the picture, but the studio declined.
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The home of the California Crusaders in the movie is Pro Player Stadium, which is where real-life team the Miami Dolphins play.
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Jim Caviezel played Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino)'s estranged son, but his scenes were cut. They can be seen in the extras of the Oliver Stone Collection DVD.
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For the scenes during a football game, production asked local schools to participate as extras for the movie, including Lake Stevens Middle School in Miami, Florida. For each shot the crowd was asked to move around so that each section looked filled, in empty seats cardboard cutouts we placed in seats with balloons attached to them so that they would seem in motion.
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According to Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J took the scripted rivalry between their characters too seriously and punched Foxx in the face while filming the scene in which their characters fight. They then had an altercation in which Foxx received a cut on his head before the two were separated. Foxx spoke about the incident in Jamie Foxx: I Might Need Security. In 2006, Foxx announced that he and LL have become friends.
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Oliver Stone wanted to use the music of the Canadian band Godspeed You Black Emperor! and actually filmed a scene using their music, when he later asked for permission, the band said no, so Stone was forced to redo the scene without the music.
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There are caricatures of Oliver Stone and Cameron Diaz in the bar next to the caricature of Al Pacino.
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Although, according to Oliver Stone, the NFL actively attempted to prevent players taking part in this project, then San Francisco wide receiver Terrell Owens can be seen playing and scoring two touchdowns for the Miami Sharks. While the name on the back of his shirt is 'Owens', he wears the number 82 and not 81 as he does in real life.
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The character Jack Rose is loosely based on sports radio talk show host Jim Rome, who was attacked by quarterback Jim Everett and "talks smack".
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NFL running back Darnell Autry auditioned for the film, but was told that he did not look enough like a football player.
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Al Pacino particularly relished his role as he found it a refreshing change from the usual cops and gangsters he often plays.
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In a great coincidence, both Al Pacino and Jamie Foxx won their first Oscars in a year that they were nominated in two acting categories. Not only that, but they both won for their lead performances, which were also both blind characters (though Pacino's character was fictional rather than Foxx's).
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Oliver Stone originally wanted to adapt the book "You're Okay, It's Just a Bruise: A Doctor's Sideline Secrets" by Robert Huizenga as a theatrical movie, but had meanwhile purchased an unrelated football screenplay by John Logan intended to be made for TV. After Al Pacino became interested in the Logan script, Stone was given the greenlight for a theatrical movie. Stone wrote a shooting script that combined the two different screenplays.
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Cameo
Barry Switzer:
former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys as a television commentator for the game between the Miami Sharks and the Dallas Knights (supposedly set in Texas Stadium, where Switzer once coached).
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