Two Avengers play roles in "The Longest Yard"
May 18, 2005 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Los Angeles Avengers News Release
For Avenger players Brian Mann and Sean McNamara it was an opportunity of a lifetime. Being able to play roles in a big-budget Hollywood movie starring Adam Sandler and Chris Rock was something they just could not pass up. After all, they got to do what they do best ... play football.
"The Longest Yard," a remake of the 1974 Burt Reynolds film in which a team of convicts is assembled to take on the prison guards, opens on Friday, May 27, in theatres nationwide. Mann and McNamara may not play a major role on the screen, but behind the scenes they most certainly did.
Sandler plays Paul Crewe, a former pro football M.V.P. quarterback who ends up in prison after his life falls apart after being accused of fixing a game. The well-known comedic Hollywood star worked with McNamara and Mann throughout the making of the film.
Mann, the Avengers' backup quarterback, serves as Sandler's stunt double and is the one making the amazing throws to Michael Irvin in the movie. But, he's also the one taking the bone-crunching hits for Sandler.
"Apparently I took a beating well," Mann says. "So there are a few scenes where they had me doubling Adam where I got beat up."
However, the really challenging part for Mann was being forced to look bad in some scenes when they were portraying a rag-tag convict team.
"After everything you have been taught for 15 years, you have to un-teach yourself ... bad mechanics, etcetera," Mann says.
McNamara, who has a good deal of face-time in the film, plays the role of the center for the convict team in the movie and is the one snapping the ball to Sandler and protecting him from defenders on the guards' team such as Bill Romanowski, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Brian Bosworth.
"Yeah I had to show him how to take a snap," McNamara says. "He got pretty good at it."
While both McNamara and Mann played different roles in the movie, both men took similar paths to the start of their acting careers. Both say that they just kind of stumbled upon the opportunity after football coordinators for "The Longest Yard" were using the Avenger practice facility at West Los Angeles College to tryout prospective actors. Having just finished the 2004 AFL season, both men relished the chance.
"They asked if anyone could throw the football," Mann says. "I threw a little and they asked if I wanted to be in the movie."
McNamara says he also fell into his role, as well.
"Joe Douglass, who played here last year with the Avengers, had a friend looking for someone from Los Angeles. So, he called me up and asked if I was interested in doing it. I was like, 'Hell ya.'"
Filming began on July 13, and did not finish until the end of October. Avenger football operations manager Gene Miranda, head athletic trainer Brian Nguyen, assisant athletic trainer Erin Shishido and athletic training assistant Steve McCall were also part of the film's football operations unit.
After a three-week training camp, the crew headed to Santa Fe, N.M., for six weeks and filmed at an actual prison that was no longer in use. Then, they came back to the Los Angeles area to film the "Mean Machine vs. Guards" game at El Camino Junior College for another eight weeks.
Both Mann and McNamara say that Sandler and the rest of the cast were a joy to work with and they definitely would like to try to take on some additional roles in upcoming films. But, for now they will just enjoy their "15 minutes," or however many it translates to, in the sun.
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