... was not some kid who came off the street to make the Philadelphia Eagles in 1976.
Papale, in fact, had played professional football already in 1974 for the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League.
Papale also did not take part in the open tryouts shown in the movie. He had a private workout.
Maybe the producers of the movie felt these facts might have made the story less impressive, but it should not.
Papale deserves all the credit and success he earns. Making the NFL is extremely hard.
One other fact left out is where Eagles coach Dick Vermeil got his idea of an open tryout from.
Vermeil was the very first special teams coach in NFL history, under the guidance of Hall Of Fame coaches Sid Gillman and George Allen, while with the Los Angeles Rams in 1969. Allen had convinced Gillman of how critical special teams were, thus a now common coaching position was born.
Allen became the head coach o...
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