Necessary Roughness (film)
Encyclopedia
Necessary Roughness is a 1991 comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 film starring Scott Bakula
Scott Bakula
Scott Stewart Bakula is an American actor, known for his role as Sam Beckett in the television series Quantum Leap, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama in 1991 and was nominated for four Emmy Awards. He also had a prominent role as Captain Jonathan...

 and Sinbad
Sinbad (entertainer)
David Adkins better known by his professional name of Sinbad, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He became well known in the 1990s from being featured on his own HBO specials, appearing on several television series, and starring in the films Necessary Roughness, Houseguest, First Kid,...

. The film was directed by Stan Dragoti
Stan Dragoti
Stan Dragoti is an Albanian American film director, whose work includes the comedies Mr. Mom and Love at First Bite....

, who has also directed the movies Mr. Mom
Mr. Mom
Mr. Mom is a 1983 American comedy-drama film directed by Stan Dragoti and written by John Hughes about a stay-at-home dad. The film stars Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, and Martin Mull.-Plot:...

, She's Out of Control
She's Out of Control
She's Out of Control is an independent American 1989 coming of age comedy film starring Tony Danza, Ami Dolenz and Catherine Hicks. The original music score was composed by Alan Silvestri...

, and The Man With One Red Shoe
The Man with One Red Shoe
The Man With One Red Shoe is a 1985 comedy film directed by Stan Dragoti. It is a remake of a 1972 French film Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire starring Pierre Richard and Mireille Darc...

. In addition to Bakula and Sinbad, Necessary Roughness has an additional cast of Héctor Elizondo
Hector Elizondo
Héctor Elizondo is an American actor. Elizondo's first major role was that of "God" in the play Steambath, for which he won an Obie Award...

, Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia is an American film and television actor and director.- Early life :Loggia, an Italian American, was born on Staten Island, the son of Elena Blandino, a homemaker, and Benjamin Loggia, a shoemaker, both of whom were born in Sicily, Italy...

, Larry Miller
Larry Miller (actor)
Lawrence J. "Larry" Miller is an American actor, voice artist, comedian, podcaster, and columnist.-Early life:Miller was born in Valley Stream, New York, attended Valley Stream South High School graduating in 1971. He attended Amherst College...

, and Harley Jane Kozak
Harley Jane Kozak
-Life and career:Kozak was born Susan Jane Kozak in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Dorothy , a university music teacher, and Joseph Aloysius Kozak, an attorney. She has seven siblings: brothers John, Joseph, Peter and Andrew and sisters Dorothy, Mary and Ann. Harley is the youngest of...

. Appearances are also made in the film by Kathy Ireland
Kathy Ireland
Kathleen Marie "Kathy" Ireland is an American former model, actress, and entrepreneur. She is the CEO and designer of her eponymous brand product marketing company, Kathy Ireland Worldwide.-Life and career:...

, Rob Schneider
Rob Schneider
Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow:...

, and Fred Dalton Thompson
Fred Dalton Thompson
Fred Dalton Thompson , is an American politician, actor, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, and radio host. He served as a Republican U.S...

.

The film touches on an up and coming season at the fictional higher learning institution of Texas State University and its football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 team nicknamed the Fightin' Armadillo
Armadillo
Armadillos are New World placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. Dasypodidae is the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one"...

s. (At the time the film was made, there was no Texas State University, but in 2003, Southwest Texas State University changed its name to Texas State University-San Marcos, nicknamed the Bobcat
Bobcat
The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...

s, which coincidentally was the "season opener" opponent of the fictional Texas State Armadillo
Armadillo
Armadillos are New World placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. Dasypodidae is the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one"...

s). Texas State's predicament—they are forced to start the season with a host of new coaches and players after the previous staff and players were removed after a scandal—is based on the "death penalty" handed out to the Southern Methodist University football team by the NCAA in 1987 for team violations
Southern Methodist University football scandal
The Southern Methodist University football scandal was an incident in which the football program at Southern Methodist University was investigated and punished for massive violations of NCAA rules and regulations. The most serious violation was the maintenance of a slush fund used for "under the...

 very similar to the ones that the fictional Texas State is accused of.

The film was released in September 1991 and went on to gross over $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

20 million at the box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....

. During one scene, when the team takes part in a scrimmage game with a team of convicts, cameos are made by several NFL players. These players included Jerry Rice
Jerry Rice
Jerry Lee Rice is a retired American football wide receiver. He is generally regarded as the greatest wide receiver of all time and one of the greatest players in National Football League history...

, Roger Craig, Earl Campbell
Earl Campbell
Earl Christian Campbell , nicknamed The Tyler Rose, is a former professional American Football running back. He, Paul Hornung and O.J Simpson are the only people to have won the Heisman Trophy , were first overall National Football League draft picks and are in both the Pro Football Hall of Fame...

, Dick Butkus
Dick Butkus
Richard Marvin "Dick" Butkus is a former American football player for the Chicago Bears. He was drafted in 1965 and he is also widely regarded as one of the best and most durable linebackers of all time. Butkus starred as a football player for the University of Illinois and the Chicago Bears. He...

, Ben Davidson
Ben Davidson
Benjamin Earl Davidson is a former collegiate and professional American football player between 1961 and 1972, most notably in the American Football League with the Oakland Raiders from 1964 through 1969, and for the NFL Raiders from 1970 through 1972. He had also played in the NFL for the league...

, Tony Dorsett
Tony Dorsett
Anthony "Tony" Drew Dorsett is a former American football running back in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos.-Early years:...

, Ed 'Too Tall' Jones, Herschel Walker
Herschel Walker
Herschel Junior Walker is an American mixed martial artist and a former American football player. He played college football for the University of Georgia Bulldogs and earned the 1982 Heisman Trophy. He began his professional career with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League...

, Jim Kelly
Jim Kelly
James Edward Kelly is a former American football quarterback in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills and the USFL's Houston Gamblers....

, and Randy White
Randy White (American football)
Randall Lee "Randy" White is a former American football defensive lineman and linebacker. He attended the University of Maryland from 1971 to 1974, and played professionally for the Dallas Cowboys from 1975 to 1988. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame...

. The film also has some cameo appearances from Chris Berman and Evander Holyfield
Evander Holyfield
Evander Holyfield is a professional boxer from the United States. He is a former undisputed world champion in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, earning him the nickname "The Real Deal"...

.

The film was shot at various locations in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Azle
Azle, Texas
Azle is a city in Parker and Tarrant counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,947.Popular tourist attractions include marine sports at Eagle Mountain Lake such as swimming, fishing and boating.-Geography:...

, Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

, and Denton
Denton, Texas
The city of Denton is the county seat of Denton County, Texas in the United States. Its population was 119,454 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eleventh largest city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...

 were the primary locations used for filming. The University of North Texas
University of North Texas
The University of North Texas is a public institution of higher education and research in Denton. Founded in 1890, UNT is part of the University of North Texas System. As of the fall of 2010, the University of North Texas, Denton campus, had a certified enrollment of 36,067...

 in Denton was a major location for filming football and college scenes. Texas State's green and white uniforms in the movie are exactly the same colors worn by North Texas.

Plot Summary

Due to NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

 sanctions, the Texas State University Fightin' Armadillos must start from scratch to build a new team after a tradition of winning. The previous staff and players violated numerous rules and regulations, resulting in a ban for everyone from returning except Charlie Banks, the only "clean" player, who never got to play despite having "heart".

The new coaching staff, led by Ed "Straight Arrow" Gennero (Elizondo), has nothing to assist them in building the team as no athletic scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...

s are available. They must look for volunteers from the student body. Along with this, they must worry about Dean Elias (Miller), who wants the team to fail so he can scrap it. A number of student volunteers are assembled, and soon the coaches have a makeshift team in place.

There are not enough members of the team to have offense
Offense (sports)
In sports, offense or offence , also known as attack, is the action of attacking or engaging an opposing team with the objective of scoring points or goals...

 and defense due to Dean Elias, so they are forced to play iron-man football. The team lacks experience and talent in all areas, especially at quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...

, placekicker
Placekicker
Placekicker, or simply kicker , is the title of the player in American and Canadian football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals, extra points...

, and the defensive line. Assistant coach Wally "Rig" Riggendorf (Loggia) recruits a 34 year old former high school star Paul Blake (Bakula), who never attended college due to his father's death. Rig convinces him to enroll and play for the team.

Blake arrives on campus and catches everyone's attention due to his age, especially Professor Carter (Kozak). Paul then recruits a graduate student teaching assistant named Andre Krimm (Sinbad), who is also enrolled at the school and eligible to play for the team. Blake convinces him to join, and he is positioned on the defensive line, where he excelled years earlier. Even with the new members, the team continues to lose games. Things get so bad that, at one point during the film, announcer Chuck Neiderman (Schneider) covers his microphone with his hands and screams, "SHIT!!!!" at the top of his lungs.

Professor Carter tells Blake that she knows him from years earlier. Carter's ex-boyfriend was a high school football star, but Blake and his team humiliated him and his team in a championship game. This episode actually caused Carter to become infatuated with Blake. Now, years after the fact, the two begin a romantic relationship, which Dean Elias opposes.

Coach Rig makes one more recruiting move to secure a kicker. He shocks everybody by selecting Lucy Draper (Ireland) from the school's soccer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 team. When she is brought on board, the team has its first taste of success, as Draper kicks a field goal in a driving rainstorm to forge a 3-3 tie with Kansas
Kansas Jayhawks
The sports teams at the University of Kansas are known as the Jayhawks. They are one of three schools in the state of Kansas that participate in NCAA Division I. The Jayhawks are also a member of the Big 12 Conference...

 (in real life, Kansas holds the all-time NCAA Division I-A record for number of tie games with 57.). After this game, Blake quits the team after arguments with the head coach (Elizondo) and Professor Carter, but convinces himself to come back after a teammate, who is also quitting, inadvertently changes his mind and both come back. With the coaches and players now on the same page, the team plays their last game of the season against the number one ranked team in the country, the University of Texas Colts, with whom the Armadillos were involved in a barroom brawl earlier in the season.

They head into the game as huge underdogs, and without Coach Gennero, who is hospitalized just prior to the game, leaving Coach Rig in charge. After a horrible first half, they come back in the second half to make it a one point game with a few seconds left, and Gennero returns to the sideline, having only suffered from indigestion, though he lets Coach Rig call the final play. The team decides to try to win it all with a two-point conversion
Two-point conversion
In American and Canadian football, a two-point conversion is a play a team attempts instead of kicking a one-point convert immediately after it scores a touchdown...

. They fake a point after
Extra Point
Extra Point is a twice-daily, two-minute segment on ESPN Radio that covers generic sports-related topical news and opinion. The AM edition airs Monday through Saturday at various times between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. ET, and the PM edition airs Monday through Friday between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET...

 attempt and pass for two. Blake scrambles and finally finds Banks in the end zone. Blake passes, Banks catches, and Texas State wins the game.

The Team

  • Scott Bakula
    Scott Bakula
    Scott Stewart Bakula is an American actor, known for his role as Sam Beckett in the television series Quantum Leap, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama in 1991 and was nominated for four Emmy Awards. He also had a prominent role as Captain Jonathan...

     - Paul Blake
  • Héctor Elizondo
    Hector Elizondo
    Héctor Elizondo is an American actor. Elizondo's first major role was that of "God" in the play Steambath, for which he won an Obie Award...

     - Coach Ed Gennero
  • Robert Loggia
    Robert Loggia
    Robert Loggia is an American film and television actor and director.- Early life :Loggia, an Italian American, was born on Staten Island, the son of Elena Blandino, a homemaker, and Benjamin Loggia, a shoemaker, both of whom were born in Sicily, Italy...

     - Coach Wally Riggendorf
  • Sinbad
    Sinbad (entertainer)
    David Adkins better known by his professional name of Sinbad, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He became well known in the 1990s from being featured on his own HBO specials, appearing on several television series, and starring in the films Necessary Roughness, Houseguest, First Kid,...

     - Andre Krimm
  • Jason Bateman
    Jason Bateman
    Jason Kent Bateman is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden...

     - Jarvis Edison
  • Andrew Bryniarski
    Andrew Bryniarski
    Andrew Bryniarski is an American actor and a former bodybuilder of Russian descent, who is best known for portraying Steve Lattimer in The Program, as well as Leatherface in the remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its prequel and Zangief in the live action Street Fighter movie...

     - Wyatt Beaudry
  • Duane Davis
    Duane Davis
    Duane Davis, the son of NFL Hall of Fame defensive end Willie Davis, is an American actor who has been in such films as Ghosts of Mars and Paparazzi. He played Joe Louis in a made-for-TV movie about Rocky Marciano, James "Buster" Douglas in the HBO original movie Tyson and as ESU football star...

     - Featherstone
  • Michael Dolan
    Michael Dolan
    Michael Dolan, born June 21, 1965, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is an American theatre and film actor, director and educator.-Acting career:...

     - Eric 'Samurai' Hansen
  • Marcus Giamatti
    Marcus Giamatti
    Marcus Giamatti is an American actor, best known for being a regular member of the cast of the CBS drama series Judging Amy.-Background:...

     - Sargie 'Fumblina' Wilkinson
  • Kathy Ireland
    Kathy Ireland
    Kathleen Marie "Kathy" Ireland is an American former model, actress, and entrepreneur. She is the CEO and designer of her eponymous brand product marketing company, Kathy Ireland Worldwide.-Life and career:...

     - Lucy Draper
  • Andrew Lauer
    Andrew Lauer
    -Life and career:Lauer may be best known to America acting as "Charlie" on the hit NBC comedy series Caroline in the City. He recently wrapped principal photography directing the motion picture Adventures of a Teenage Dragon Slayer starring Lea Thompson and Wendie Malick. The film will be released...

     - Charlie Banks
  • Louis Mandylor
    Louis Mandylor
    Louis Mandylor is an Australian film and television actor.-Life and career:Mandylor was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, the son of Greek immigrants Louise and Yannis Theodosopoulos, a taxi driver...

     - McKenzie
  • Peter Tuiasosopo - Manumana "the Slender"

The University

  • Harley Jane Kozak
    Harley Jane Kozak
    -Life and career:Kozak was born Susan Jane Kozak in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Dorothy , a university music teacher, and Joseph Aloysius Kozak, an attorney. She has seven siblings: brothers John, Joseph, Peter and Andrew and sisters Dorothy, Mary and Ann. Harley is the youngest of...

     - Dr. Suzanne Carter
  • Larry Miller
    Larry Miller (actor)
    Lawrence J. "Larry" Miller is an American actor, voice artist, comedian, podcaster, and columnist.-Early life:Miller was born in Valley Stream, New York, attended Valley Stream South High School graduating in 1971. He attended Amherst College...

     - Dean Phillip Elias
  • Fred Dalton Thompson
    Fred Dalton Thompson
    Fred Dalton Thompson , is an American politician, actor, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, and radio host. He served as a Republican U.S...

     - Carver Purcell
  • Rob Schneider
    Rob Schneider
    Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow:...

     - Chuck Neiderman

Reception

Necessary Roughness was largely panned by critics. The film earned a "Rotten" rating of 27% at "Rotten Tomatoes" (60% or better earns a film a "Fresh" rating). One film summary stated "A bad attempt at making a football version of Major League
Major League (film)
Major League is a 1989 American satire comedy film written and directed by David S. Ward, starring Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, James Gammon, and Corbin Bernsen. Made for US$11 million, Major League grossed nearly US$50 million in domestic release...

." Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...

, in a criticism of sports movies in general, stated that "Kathy Ireland is probably the best thing in this laugh-a-quarter film". However, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 wrote a more positive review, giving the film three stars. Ebert stated the film did do a good job of poking fun at some serious problems within college football, such as recruiting superstar players who lack the academic skills to be college undergraduates, colleges mollycoddling athletes through ridiculously easy classes, i.e. "rocks for jocks
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

", and alumni giving payoffs to college players. Ebert's review claimed it is good to see a college being forced to use genuine students for its football team and anticorruption practices which prevent the aforementioned favoritism and big money.
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