SRO Flicks w/ Ram Man: ‘The Longest Yard’

I figured it’s the start of the football season so lets start off “Standing Room Only Flicks” w/ Ram Man with   one of my all-time favorite pigskin classics.Every other week i will pull out one of my favorite sports flicks and give you the fanatics feel of the film.  Last weekend I had about enough of the Rams football game by halftime so I  searched for  some “real” football ” that I could enjoy watching and popped in “The Longest Yard” on DVD.

The story is about washed-up football star Paul “wrecking” Crewe, thrown out of the NFL for  throwing a game and now is heading to the state penitentiary for grand theft auto. He stole his girlfriends car and drove it in the lake. I guess they broke up????  Crewe is “recruited” by Warden Hazen (Eddie Albert), the “Jerry Jones “of the prison system. Hazen has the best semi-Pro team in the Penitentiary league lead by Capt. Knauer (Ed Lauter) at QB.  Knauer wants no  help from Crewe but the sadistic guard has no problem trying to change his mind via nightstick.  After a few lumps to the head to convince him Crewe decides to help the guards by scrimmaging them with the inmates. With the help of Caretaker (James Hampton) the retail source of the prison, Crewe begins building his team.  They get former NFL star Nate Scarborough (Michael Conrad) to coach and the Mean Machine  was born. The inmates know Crewe’s history and will not be embarrassed by the guards. Warden Hazen, wanting to guarantee a victory and send a message to the inmates arranges for Crewe to throw the game in exchange for a shorter sentence. Only Crewe won’t survive to see the end if his fellow inmates have anything to say about it. The original features performance by Richard “Jaws” Kiel and NFL legend Ray Nitschke

The Longest Yard is one of my favorite football films. In 2005 Adam Sandler refreshed the story by using the gang from Happy Madison productions, Chris Rock, NFL stars Micheal Irvin and Bill Romanowski and  rapper Nelly filling the key positions on the team . Sandler who played the title role of Paul Crewe had to bring back some of the flair of the original, so he also added Ed Lauter (the Original Capt. Knauer) and Burt Reynolds as inmate Nate Scarborough who coaches the Mean Machine. The story line in the 2005 version has the same basic story with the normal Sandler hi-jinx and numerous cameos from the likes of Courtney cox, Dan Patrick and Chris Berman of ESPN.

Both version are good films and have an audience. i personally prefer the original, it’s a classic. But there are times when i need a laugh and i will pop in  the newer version instead. So if you local NFL team is not measuring up… then pop in “The Longest Yard” (either one) and support the Mean Machine!