As reported by NBC’s Peter King, Home Team’s story will begin in 2012 when Payton was suspended by NFL commissioner Roger Godell for the Saints’ bounty scandal.
In order to “re-assess his life and put it in some perspective,” Payton becomes the offensive coach for the Liberty Christian Warriors, his son’s sixth-grade football located in Dallas, Texas.
King mentions that Payton has already read the script and has made some corrections, and that filming should begin later this year.
Payton spoke to ESPN, and believes this movie will have a “humorous Adam Sandler” spin on the real story and will be more of an “inspired by” tale than an exact retelling. He also said the idea came to be after his daughter Meghan reported the true story of his time with the Warriors for NFL Network.
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Meghan’s boyfriend, Christoper Titone, is Sandler’s brother-in-law and an actor who works with Happy Madison. After discussing the idea with Sandler, he gave the go-ahead and entrusted Titone to help produce the script.
When asked about Kevin James playing him, Payton responded by saying, “listen, I’m at that age where I don’t really care.” However, he enjoyed talking to James about the role, and knows that James and Happy Madison do a “great job.”
For those unfamiliar, the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, informally known as Bountygate, was an incident in which members of the Saints were accused of paying out bonuses/bounties for their players to injure opposing team players.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.