MovieChat Forums > Draft Day (2014) Discussion > Entertaining, but laughably unrealistic

Entertaining, but laughably unrealistic


It's a good movie that keeps your attention and moves well, but the base logic is just ridiculous.

No GM would ever do what Sonny did -- mortgaging the future for a last-minute emotion pick on a player he could've got without ever giving away the team's future in the first place.

That just makes it look like the Browns GM doesn't know what he's doing (which may or may not be a reflection of the real team).

And the whole, "With the first pick... the Cleveland Browns select Vontae Mack" is just flat-out embarrassingly bad because of how absurd that whole notion is.

It woulda been like Indianapolis taking LB Greg Ellis at No. 1 in the 1998 draft and then watching Peyton Manning fall all the way down to Dallas at No. 8. And for what? Because Callahan MAY NOT have had his teammates at some party?

LOL is an understatement.

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So it's a good movie? That's all that matters. The small smattering of football fans are not that important for them to worry about making it documentary real. The world outside America doesn't care about the nfl.

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First off, Vontae Mack is a far superior player to Greg Ellis. If you remember correctly, when Costner picked Mack 1st overall, everyone thought he was crazy. But it turned out that he was just crazy enough to pull off the draft of the century.

The biggest point you missed is why Callahan didn't get picked. His teammates not coming to his party (they definitely did not, its called context clues, brah) is just one component of Bo Callahan's many character flaws. Bo panics when he is under pressure. We saw it on the tape, and we saw it when he left the draft. Bo is a liar. He lied about that 100 dollar bill and he lied about not remembering anything from his 21st birthday party. Bo Callahan was not the guy. He doesnt have the strong character, passion, and leadership that a NFL quarterback needs. You know who had all of that and then some? Brian Drew. The only guy who mailed the $100 back. The guy who was playing at an elite level until an injury took him out for the rest of the season. Brian Drew had bulked up, and was now capable of throwing the ball 15 yards deeper than before. Thats like 15% of the field man.

It is funny that you mention Peyton Manning, since Leaf went number 2 in that draft, and he was terrible. In hindsight, they should have taken Ellis at pick number 2. He was certainly more productive, but at the time no one knew that. Costner went with his gut, and his gut rightfully told him that Bo Callahan was a Grade A bust. Time has clearly proven this to be fact.

The only thing I said LOL to was the Seattle Seahawks foolish draft choice in this film. Have fun with your liar QB.

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The biggest point you missed is why Callahan didn't get picked. His teammates not coming to his party (they definitely did not, its called context clues, brah) is just one component of Bo Callahan's many character flaws.


It would have been known if Bo wasn't liked by his teammates. Bo was a team captain, which is voted on by the players, so if he wasn't liked then he wouldn't have been a captain.

Bo panics when he is under pressure. We saw it on the tape


All we saw was that he got rattled for a play after taking a big hit, which is understandable. He wasn't used to taking big hits. He won the game and threw 4 TDs. He stepped up and won despite his team's poor blocking in that game.

and we saw it when he left the draft


He went outside to get some fresh air when he inexplicably slid in the draft. He came back in. How did Drew react when he heard news that the Browns got the #1 pick? 'Trade me!' His teammate told him to just beat him out for the job, but Drew still demanded a trade. Drew panicked.

Bo is a liar. He lied about that 100 dollar bill


College kids lie. They make poor decisions at times. How does this one instance define him? Scam Newton lied his ass off in college, but that hasn't prevented him from being a really good QB in the NFL.

and he lied about not remembering anything from his 21st birthday party.


How do we know he lied here? It was his 21st birthday meaning he very likely got drunk off his ass and the day is a blur to him.

Bo Callahan was not the guy. He doesnt have the strong character, passion, and leadership that a NFL quarterback needs.


Sounds like you're projecting your own failures on to him. Bo was a winner, and he was willing and even thrilled about playing for the Cleveland Browns. That takes very strong character. If he was a prima donna like Eli Manning, then he would have told Cleveland that he wouldn't play for them. But hell, even douches like Eli have been successful in the NFL.

The guy who was playing at an elite level until an injury took him out for the rest of the season.


We have no idea how he was playing. All we know is that they were 5-1.

Costner went with his gut, and his gut rightfully told him that Bo Callahan was a Grade A bust. Time has clearly proven this to be fact.

The only thing I said LOL to was the Seattle Seahawks foolish draft choice in this film. Have fun with your liar QB.


Bo Callahan = Russell Wilson
The Browns drafted Mingo and Trent Richardson. LOL. Weaver thinks Brian "Josh McCown" Drew is the answer. The Browns will continue to suck. They're completely clueless when it comes to QBs. Manziel, Weeden, McCoy, Quinn, Frye, Luke McCown, Wynn, Couch, Zeier, etc... Them sticking with Josh McCown instead of drafting Russell Wilson in the movie is rather fitting for Cleveland.

This is Carcosa. Take off your mask.

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You're putting a lot of effort into failing to get a message that the filmmakers are practically hitting you over the head to convey.

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Nope, sorry, try again

I drink and I know things

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The year Tom Brady went at 199, the first round number 2 pick was LaVar Arrington a Line Backer out of Penn State.

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Costner is an idiot for making the first trade with Seattle, but the Seattle GM is an even bigger idiot for giving everything back .... oh well, I guess Hollywood has to find a way to make Costner look good ...

but what Hollywood should have done is extended the movie into the season opener between (what else?) Cleveland and Seattle; during the course of the game, vontae can plow into Bo, tearing up Bo's knee and ending his season; Hollywood could then show Costner giving his smug "I told you so" smile to the Seattle GM.

going farther, like 22 years into the future farther, Costner could still be the downtrodden but still beloved GM of the Browns. Costner's son (assumption), who after a promising but not stellar college career at QB, is drafted by Dad, has an amazing rookie year and leads the Browns to a Super Bowl win as Dad has a heart attack and dies in the suite watching the game. Mama Weaver, miraculously still alive at the age of 92, in her motorized wheelchair leads the entire Browns organization onto the practice field to spread her dead son's ashes on top of her dead husbands's ashes.

sorry, I can't resist making fun of the garbage that comes out of Hollywood.

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Some of the trade logic is a bit wacky, though not quite so much as you're making it sound.

mortgaging the future for a last-minute emotion pick on a player he could've got without ever giving away the team's future in the first place.

It wasn't a "last-minute emotion pick." It was the pick he had decided to make early on, after calm consideration. Or did you miss the note he wrote to himself back at the beginning of the movie?

The "could've got ... in the first place," on the other hand, is (presumably) true. But the reason he didn't just sit with the original pick and take Mack - which would've made more sense - is because the owner essentially ordered him to make the trade so he could select Callahan.

That just makes it look like the Browns GM doesn't know what he's doing

Yes, exactly. So far as I can tell, that's exactly what the filmmakers' intentions were. Here's the bones of the story:
- Sonny has the right idea from the start.
- The owner - who's a jerk, motivated by the wrong goals, and not that smart - leans on him to make a trade, any trade, and select Callahan, and in an understandable moment of weakness Sonny capitulates.
- Additional information comes up that confirms Sonny had the right idea all along.
- Sonny rebels against the owner and does the right thing, which - because it reverses the stupid move ordered by the owner - makes him look incompetent.
- Through a series of (fairly improbable) events, Sonny manages to save the day and show the world he's not the idiot he looked like an hour earlier.

(which may or may not be a reflection of the real team)

Well, yeah, it would seem to be. But that's not really relevant, as the teams in the movie are clearly fictional and bear only a vague resemblance to real teams (they just went nuts with the names and logos, presumably because they were so glad they pried that hard-to-get right out of the NFL).

It woulda been like....

That's kind of the point, though, isn't it? That Sonny is brilliant enough to make moves that look like the wrong ones, but are going to turn out to the right ones.

Because Callahan MAY NOT have had his teammates at some party?

The moviemakers did everything short of putting up a written intertitle with the words "Callahan has character problems, and will be a bust, while Mack has been unfairly misunderstood and has the heart to be a great player."

You can fight the storyteller all you want, but I don't know what the point is. The story they're telling - an unlikely one, which is what makes it interesting - is what it is.



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