Product Description

What generated all the controversy about PLAYMAKERS, ESPN's daring hit series about a fictional pro football team? This eleven-episode, three-disc set lets you immerse yourself in the off-the-field lives of the Cougars from its very beginning. With its lightning-fast pace and great characters, this gritty and edgy drama is as intense a roller-coaster ride as any drama on the field.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23048 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-06-08
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 491 minutes

Amazon.com
Playmakers grows on a viewer in the most important way a good television series should: by encouraging curiosity about the growth and fate of key characters. One might easily dismiss this ESPN original drama as a mere catalog of the problems that dog some professional football players, very often to public scrutiny: injuries, drugs, egos, criminal associations, etc. But patience rewards those who watch enough of Playmakers's 11 episodes to care about the humanity of the show's troubled athletes. The series concerns NFL contenders the Cougars, led by a hard but fair coach (Anthony John Denison) suffering from prostate cancer while dealing with a treacherous team owner (Bruce Gray), a problematic prima donna (Omar Gooding), and mid-ranked players struggling with fundamentals of the game.

Meanwhile, several Cougars emerge as major characters, among them middle linebacker Eric Olczyk (Jason Matthew Smith), a good guy psychologically impaired after paralyzing an opposing player and now trying to get both his game and life back. Olczyk's best friend, running back Leon Taylor (Russell Hornsby), is at the end of his contract and faces stiff competition for his job, causing stress that translates into a reputation-destroying act of domestic violence. Star quarterback Derek McConnell, a hound among hounds, impregnates a stranger and compels a team assistant (Stephen Bogaert) to handle abortion details. Time after time, the men of Playmakers find themselves pressured to live and function with an eye toward the team's good image and commercial prospects. Yet clean living is terribly difficult given the physical sacrifices, emotional isolation, management sabotage, and temptations foisted upon pro players. The many dramatic strings drawn out over the series come together in the very fine final episode, ending on a note of irony as outrageous as anything previously seen on television. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Quality Ignored
This is a fascinating, engaging, television show. A show of true quality that does not talk down to its viewers. That is probably why ESPN cancelled it, and that's a damn shame. The NFL should be brutally ashamed of itself for thinking that its public image would be effected by what is clearly a work of *fiction.* Why does the NFL think its public image is that high anyway? Don't get me wrong I love football, but I hardly consider the game, or its players & coaches to be paragons of virtue. Does anyone? ESPN should be ashamed (though not as much) for caving to the pressure. Hopefully, another network will pick up this fine, fine show so that we can be treated to another season. At the very least, the producers should be allowed to give the show a decent finale instead of leaving it unfinished.

Not only were the stories "true," so were the characters
"Playmakers," ESPN's pro football drama, lasted only a single season and only eleven episodes at that. It became well known that the National Football League (read the Commissioner's office) hated the series because it provided an unrealistic (read realistic) picture of professional football. As one columnist pointed out, "Playmakers" would have had trouble putting together a second season of shows simply because it had already used pretty much every real-world NFL scandal from the past decade. But this week Baltimore Ravens running back Jamal Lewis was sentenced to four months in prison for using a cell phone to try and set up a drug deal, Terrell Owen has declared that he will be playing in the Super Bowl despite not being cleared to play by his doctor, and the Philadelphia Eagles signed veteran tight end Jeff Thomason to take a vacation from his construction job to play in the Super Bowl to replace the injured Chad Lewis on the roster. So, yes, I think that "Playmakers" could have found more things to write about.

For me the biggest adjustment with watching "Playmakers" was getting used to virtually all of the action being off the field. We were more likely to see the Cougars involved in practice than on game day, and while we recognize that staging football scenes is time consuming (and involves elements of risk for the actors), it does require viewers to make some allowances of the stories. This is because while most of the drama happens off the playing field the resolution of many of the issues can only take place during the game. But by the time you get through the first couple of episodes you understand the rules by which the series is playing and it becomes clear "Playmakers" is character driven.

The central character is #33 Leon Taylor (Russell Hornsby), a running back out of USC in his ninth season. In addition to being old by running back standards, Taylor is just back rehabilitating an injury and dealing with whether or not the team is going to give him a contract for the next season. Adding insult to injury is that the team is more than willing to give Taylor's starting position to rookie running back #39 Demetrius Harris (Omar Gooding). This eternal conflict between the veteran and the rookie is at the heart of the series, and the biggest problem I have with Harris is not that he is always breaking the speed limit or doing drugs, but that he is portrayed as one of the most cocky and arrogant rookies in the history of football. I kept waiting for middle linebacker #54 Eric Olczyk (Jason Matthew Smith) to just lay out the rookie flat during practice. But the kid's behavior is indulged, even though it seems decidedly out of place on a team that is 2-3 when he pick up the season.

While Taylor is doing steroids to get back from rehab, Olczyk is doing drugs of a different sort, anti-depressants, because the vicious hit he gave that paralyzed another player was actually a cheap shot. The team's quarterback, #11 Derek McConnell (Christopher Wiehl) is rather boring in comparison, because he is just a swinging playboy. The team's gopher and its gay defensive back are both much more interesting, as is offensive tackle #60 Kevin "The Buffalo" James (Marcello Thedford), who becomes DH's loyal sidekick, especially since we are talking about a loyalty that is abused. Head Coach Mike George (Tony Denison) is also in his 9th season, with a winning record below .500, but it is his lack of control over his team rather than his win-loss record that suggests the Cougars get somebody new.

Although "Playmakers" ends with the show's soap opera elements such as Olczyk's girl friend problems and Taylor's sportscaster try out threatening to overwhelm the ironic climax to the Cougar's season, you had to admit that ultimate the series WAS a soap opera. What mattered was that the ESPN series fleshed out the stories ripped from the headlines about spousal abuse, players bulking up beyond what is good for them, drug detox, and quarterbacks who are really great runners. Not only did we get the entire story, but also each story was told about much fuller characters than we get to know through watching the NFL (on ESPN or elsewhere). I also liked the way the characters changed over the course of the season, forcing us to reassess them. My initial sympathy for Taylor certainly waned, as did my feelings for most of the characters. In the end, maybe what was so interesting about "Playmakers" was that the characters were three-dimensional, which is certainly more than you can say for the "real" playmakers in the NFL.

Wow...what a great show.
I can't believe I never watched this when it was on the air. I picked up the DVD yesterday after overhearing a few people talk about it, and WOW!, I watched all 11 hours of it already!

I am so spoiled with HBO that I hardly watch original series on "regular TV" anymore, but Playmakers is outstanding. I'm not even a huge football fan, but I was totally engrossed in this series. There is so much crap out there but great shows like this get canned. It doesn't make any sense. The NFL is stupid for forcing ESPN to cancel this show. They had it all backwards: The show actually made me WANT to watch football. And I don't even like football.

The only bad thing anyone could say about this show is that it's not "realistic". Well, of course all this stuff wouldn't happen to such a small group of people. But, you can say that about ANY show. The point is that this team represents all teams. At one point in time the stuff on this show has happened to some team out there, and Playmakers takes you into the lives of these players in a way that hasn't been done before.

I give this show my highest recommendation for anybody that likes HBO-quality dramas. Playmakers is top shelf TV. Definitely check it out.