Leatherheads 2008

The Story

Leatherheads takes a look way, way back in time to when professional football was taking its very first baby steps toward being an organized sports league. In the early days, players played the sport for the love of the game, a couple of bucks, and the thrill of being part of a team. The game itself more closely resembled rugby than anything else, with passing used only sporadically. Trick plays, cheating (a certain New England Patriots coach would have fit right in) and fistfights were the order of the day. Finding sponsors and paying for roadtrips was tough work for the fledgling league in the 1920s, and teams folded with little or no warning.

At the center of the Leatherheads story is Dodge Connolly (Clooney). One of the sport’s most recognizable players/advocates, Dodge is a quick-witted, middle-aged player who calls the plays, captain’s the team, and even ghost-writes the sports column for the local newspaper reporter who spends most of his days three sheets to the wind. Dodge loses the battle to keep his struggling Bulldogs team afloat but, ever the smooth-talker, he refuses to stay down for the count.

Dodge figures out that the way to pull in the crowds, and thus guarantee his team’s financial success, is to lure college football star/war hero Carter ‘The Bullet’ Rutherford (Krasinski) into signing with his team and turning pro. The Bullet’s presence on the field’s enough to fill stands and save the Bulldogs from extinction. But what Dodge doesn’t count on is the persistence of Lexie Littleton (Zellweger), a perky, pouty-faced reporter who’s easily his match in the brains department. Lexie’s editor believes there’s something fishy about the story surrounding Carter Rutherford’s act of heroism in the war and if Lexie can get the real scoop, she’ll get a huge promotion at the paper. With nothing to lose and two handsome studly football players vying for her affection, Lexie sets out to uncover the truth about The Bullet’s war record.