During the coronavirus shutdown, each day we will bring you a recommendation from The Post’s Peter Botte for a sports movie, TV show or book that perhaps was before your time or somehow slipped between the cracks of your viewing/reading history.
North Dallas Forty (1979)
Rated R
Streaming: Amazon Prime
If you ever wondered what professional football truly was like in its wild-west heyday of the 1970s, seek out this acclaimed dramedy adaption of former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Peter Gent’s best-selling satirical novel of the same name.
Nick Nolte (younger readers might remember him as “Blue Chips” coach Pete Bell) portrays battered and aging pass-catcher Phil Elliott, who has become increasingly dependent on pain-killers and booze — and combatant with coaches and front-office types — as his skills and health have deteriorated in the waning days of his career.
Directed by Ted Kotcheff (“First Blood”), the football scenes aren’t necessarily as intricate or high-def quality as latter-day football entries such as Oliver Stone’s “Any Given Sunday.”
Still, “North Dallas Forty” wasn’t intended to be a traditional sports flick as much as an examination of the cold business side of the game and its institutional pressures, especially during that era, when the paychecks usually weren’t commensurate with the pain these disposable players endured.
Country singer/songwriter Mac Davis also makes a memorable big-screen debut as star quarterback Seth Maxwell, based loosely on Gent’s fun-loving former Cowboys teammate and “Monday Night Football” legend Don Meredith. The scene between Nolte and Davis when they down a mixture of codeine pills with Budweiser — “The Breakfast of Champions” — was particularly eye-opening for its time.
Also, look out for two-time Super Bowl winning Raiders defensive end John Matuszak (later the deformed Sloth in “The Goonies”) as player O.W. Shaddock in his first credited role.
Quote of Note: “Son, you ain’t never gonna get off that bench until you stop fighting them suckers. You got to learn how to fool ’em. Give ’em what they want. I know. I’ve been fooling them bastards for years.” Seth Maxwell to Jack Elliot about the Bulls’ coaching staff and front office in “North Dallas Forty.”
Botte Blows: 4.4 of 5