With professional football getting set to begin a new season, I thought it might be nice to go back to its roots.  We tend to look at the National Football League (NFL) as king of the American sports world, but 100 years ago that was not the case.  If anyone paid attention to gridiron play, it was to the college ranks.  Those who moved into the non-amateur ranks were little regarded, at least in its infancy.  My apologies if I am boring you with history, but I figured it would be good context for today’s film, Leatherheads (2008).  It is set during the 1920s, before there was an NFL, even preceding many of the rules we have come to associate with the game.  There is a sense of nostalgia to the movie, which can be bad or good from a Catholic perspective, but works well as a theme.

The nostalgia is on display early in Leatherheads as we open with a vintage crowd gathered to watch a Princeton football game.  The person they have mainly come to see is star player Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski), who is also a hero of World War I.  Between scoring touchdowns and being showered with praise from the fans and press alike, many are wondering what he will do next.  The notion of entering the professional ranks is laughable, and we see why as we shift to a Duluth Bulldogs contest.  The team, led by veteran (player and military status) Jimmy “Dodge” Connelly (George Clooney), is part of the lawlessness of early football.  Still, there are nearly as many cows on hand to witness the antics as spectators, and opponents’ squads routinely fold before they get a chance to go against one another.  Nonetheless, Dodge tries any gimmick he can to draw more people, like bringing in a massive high school kid named Big Gus (Keith Loneker).  It is all for naught as their manager, Coach Frank Ferguson (Wayne Duvall), soon tells Dodge that there is no more money.  The rest of the roster members go their separate ways to find work, including Dodge.  Meanwhile, attention on Carter has not waned.  Indeed, the Chicago Daily Tribune’s chief editor, Harvey (Jack Thompson), assigns his best writer, Lexie Littleton (Renée Zellweger), to do a story about the famous athlete.  There is a catch, however.  In Harvey’s office is a soldier who claims to have served with Carter and says that the Princeton man’s version of war time events is bogus.  With the assignment to get to the bottom of the situation, Lexie heads out on the road to find Carter.  Meanwhile, Dodge has heard about the large crowds attracted to viewing Carter’s talents, and comes up with a plan lure the young gentleman into the professionals.  In this capacity, Dodge is at the hotel at the same time Lexie is waiting for Carter.  Instead, they are met by CC Frazier (Jonathan Pryce), who is now Carter’s agent.  CC is no stranger to Dodge, and the encounter is fortuitous because the former can garner the financial backing needed to restart the league.  Soon thereafter, Carter walks up and, with the money proposed to go his way, agrees to join the Bulldogs.  This means that Lexie must go, too, and Dodge overhears her on the phone with Harvey suggesting that there is something fishy about Carter’s fame.  Because Dodge is attracted to Lexie, he uses this revelation to tease her.  Because she is a poised woman herself, she does a little of her own teasing by giving in to some of Carter’s advances.  This goes on as the Bulldogs integrate their new player into their team.  Lexie’s work pays off as one night Carter admits that his version of his service record is a stretch.  Rather than single handedly getting a group of German soldiers to surrender, he had fallen asleep in their trenches and tricked them into surrendering when the Americans attacked.  It is not the heroism for which he has become known, and now Lexie is torn as to what to do with the information.  After spending a night in a speakeasy with Dodge, during which they admit their feelings for one another, CC tells Carter that the reporter could be a problem.  Carter confronts her and Dodge in the hotel lobby.  While the two men fight, she decides to run the story and returns to Chicago to write it.  As for Carter and Dodge, once they have punched themselves out, the former announces that he is going to play for Chicago.  Once there, Carter holds a press conference wherein the original soldier who told the newspaper that Carter’s story is fake reverses his stance.  Amid the bruhaha, Pete Harpin (Peter Gerety), the newly appointed commissioner of professional football, steps forward and demands that the Chicago Daily Tribune retract its article.  Hearing that Lexie is in trouble, and having a game in Chicago, Dodge recruits a number of old comrades with which he had been fighting in a bar to pose as Carter’s former platoon mates.  Dodge then goes to the meeting with Commissioner Harpin, CC, Carter, Harvey, and Lexie in order to put pressure on Carter to admit to the lie.  The star athlete does so, but then sees that Dodge had tricked him.  As for Dodge, he is told by Commissioner Harpin to clean up his play or face being kicked out of the sport.  This means that during the contest the following day, the Bulldogs cannot use any of their usual ploys.  It is a bit of a moot point as the field is a muddy mess and the score remains 3-0 in favor of Chicago until near the end.  With the ball and needing to score, taking a look at Carter then Lexie, and with the encouragement of his teammates, Dodge comes up with one last stunt to win.  As Dodge is walking away, Carter congratulates him but says the older man will be banned.  However, Dodge does get Lexie and they ride away into the end credits.

The vehicle on which Dodge and Lexie are riding at the end of Leatherheads is a replica of a 1918 Indian motorcycle.  It is part of the nostalgia to be found in the movie as discussed in the introduction.  There, I talked about how that sense of missing bygone days can be bad or good from a Catholic perspective.  The film as a whole can be considered a good, even if some of the particulars do not make sense.  In terms of how it handles the past, though, I give it solid marks.  History is fine when we seek to understand it and learn from it.  If it produces something that can lead us closer to God, then I would call that kind of nostalgia a good thing.  The film also hints at the bad kind.  Though Dodge ultimately makes the decision to move on with his life, and the Church believes in the idea that we all go through seasons, he still holds on to what he has for arguably longer than he should do.  Then again, it does give him a character arc, which is always nice to include in a piece of cinema.  However, it needs to be emphasized, again, that God will put us through different stages as we age.  This is as true for those of us who are regular parishioners as those who reside in monasteries.  I bring up that second group of people because there is misconception that once you enter religious life, you stop growing as an individual.  That is wrong simply because of God’s nature, which is limitless and unfathomable.  That means you can spend your entire life contemplating Him, having your relationship with the Divine be one way at one time, only to have it all change a few years later.  More immediately, all Dodge knows is playing football.  However, meeting Lexie opens his life to the possibility of something more.  It may not be related to God, but this Catholic is comfortable with calling it a vocation.

Comfortable is a good word to describe Leatherheads.  It is nothing spectacular, but it is familiar.  Such comfortability can be the enemy of creativity, but there are other movies you can watch to get kind of flick.