Netflix's new comedy Home Team has a premise straight out of the underdog sports movie playbook, so it might surprise you that it's something that genuinely happened.
The movie centres on NFL head coach Sean Payton (Kevin James) who, when he was suspended, goes back to his hometown in Dallas to coach his son's American Football school team.
As he improves the struggling team, Payton also finds himself reconnecting with his 12-year-old son in the process.
While there are absolutely elements of Home Team that are fictionalised, the premise is exactly what real-life NFL coach Sean Payton did in 2012. So to sort the fact from the fiction, here's the true story behind the Netflix movie.
Home Team true story: Who is Sean Payton?
Sean Payton became head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 2006 and only three years later, he led the team to their first (and so far only) Super Bowl victory during the 2009 season.
However, things turned sour in 2012 as Payton was suspended for the entire season for his role in the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, also known as "Bountygate".
Shortly after their Super Bowl win, the NFL began investigating Saints players over allegations that they deliberately injured players on the opposing team. It took until March 2012 for the NFL to announce it had evidence that Saints' staff offered bounty payments to reward any of their players for injuries that removed opposition players from the field.
It was said that Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams had created the bounty pool after his arrival in 2009. Williams was suspended indefinitely by the NFL, but had his suspension lifted a year later.
Payton was accused of attempting to cover up the scheme and also of failing to shut it down when ordered to do so by Saints team owner Tom Benson. The league said Payton chose to "falsely deny that the program existed" and for attempting to "encourage the false denials by instructing assistants to 'make sure our ducks are in a row'" (via NFL).
He failed in his attempt to appeal his suspension in April 2012 and as a result, Payton became the first NFL head coach to be suspended for any reason and didn't return to the Saints until the 2013 season.
During his one-year suspension, Payton returned to his hometown in Texas and ended up coaching his son's sixth-grade football team as the offensive coordinator. While in the movie, his son's team are quite bad when he starts working with them, this wasn't the case in real life as they comfortably won their first game.
"We had our first game Saturday, and we won 30-0. Obviously it's a completely different element. Yet you get just as excited to see the team you're a part of do well," he told The Times-Picayune.
"It was about 110 degrees on the Astroturf, I was just glad no one melted. But it was a good win for us to start the season. We scored a lot of points and created some turnovers. And they get excited about it, which is great to see."
But while Home Team does invent the classic underdogs-to-winners tale for the movie, it is accurate to real life that Payton used simplified versions of his Saints playbook. The Liberty Christian Warriors, as they were known, dominated opponents until they ran into a team called the Orange Porcupines.
"They had a real good coach. It was one of those single-wing guys. You know it's like a little clique," Payton told ESPN. He ended up seeking the advice of his mentor Bill Parcells for a plan to stop them, but when the teams met again in league finals, they lost again despite a closer battle.
(The movie does at least resist changing this into a Hollywood ending and sees the Warriors lose to the Porcupines narrowly, as they did in real life.)
Taylor Lautner plays Troy Lambert, the coach of Payton's son's team, and he's inspired by the real-life coach of the Liberty Christian Warriors, Brennan Hardy. Payton's family also appears in the movie with his son Connor, played by Tait Blum and his now ex-wife Beth, played by Jackie Sandler.
Home Team arrives on Netflix just days after the real-life Sean Payton resigned as head coach of the New Orleans Saints after a 15-year tenure, although he noted that he doesn't want to say he's retired yet (via The Guardian).
"I still have a vision for doing things in football. And I'll be honest with you, that might be coaching again at some point. I don't think it's this year, I think maybe in the future. That's not where my heart is right now," he said.
Who knows, if Home Team is a hit on Netflix, that could well be the sequel set-up right there.
Home Team is available to watch now on Netflix.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
