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Sport and scandal go hand in hand. Big boofy blokes getting a second shot despite past transgressions is the stuff that fills back pages and dominates the news. After all, they are usually “good blokes”, right? They just need a good coach and, probably, a good woman to set them back onto the path of success.
That’s the thought bubble at the heart of the new American football comedy Chad Powers, which stars Glen Powell as a disgraced college quarterback – think blonde tips, diamond earring, Cybertruck and a weirdly strong belief in internet theories about Princess Diana – who attempts a comeback by donning ridiculous prosthetics and adopting a new name. He does it all under the unwitting guidance of good-guy Coach Hudson, played by Steve Zahn, and the coach’s sensible daughter Ricky (Perry Mattfeld).
But does everyone deserve a second chance? Especially privileged white male footballers?
Hotshot quarterback Russ Holliday (Powell) ruined his promising college football career. Then comes alter-ego Chad Powers...Credit: Disney/Daniel Delgado
“There’s always an interesting thing when you look at people that have made a mistake,” says Powell, who is talking over Zoom from Los Angeles with Steve Zahn by his side. “I think half of what we probably don’t do nowadays is just say, ‘I’m sorry’. You know, take accountability for things.
“[But] the world sometimes doesn’t let you have a second chance, necessarily, so people don’t take accountability. We bury people in their mistakes, and don’t let them forget about them. And so often, especially with the internet, you’re defined by your mistakes.
“There’s a real special message here on this show. It’s the redemptive quality, it’s not isolated to any one person or type of person. It’s a universal feeling. I think there’s not one person that wouldn’t want to go back, turn the clock back, and fix something that they messed up the first time.”
Powell – who has been steadily climbing the leading man ladder with roles in Top Gun: Maverick, Anyone But You and Twisters – plays Russ Holliday, who has been on the outer ever since he blew up his University of Oregon team’s chances at winning a championship. Russ’ mistake was so spectacular, and his reaction to it so awful, that his hopes for a professional career are firmly in the bin.
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His solution then is to fake it: he slaps on a new nose, a terrible wig and false teeth (“I thought about surgery to make it permanent,” jokes Powell) and turns up at the open tryouts at the University of South Georgia in an attempt to resurrect his QB career. His new name? Chad Powers.
The idea came from a real-life prank played on students at Pennsylvania State University by former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Eli Manning, who also donned prosthetics and a wig as he went undercover at the university’s open football tryouts. The prank was filmed for Manning’s TV show Eli’s Places and it became such a viral hit that, of course, a standalone show was commissioned.
“It seems like a ridiculous idea, but one of the things that I really responded to in the original sketch was that I knew it was Eli Manning under that mask, and everybody else is not really in on the lie,” says Powell, who co-created the series with Loki writer Michael Waldron.
“There’s this really talented guy who’s like, a weird dude. But one of the things that I really liked is that with college football, if you saw somebody as talented as Eli Manning walk into your walk-on practice, you’d put up with the weirdest personality ever to win a national championship …
“A sports team is just made up of the most crazy personalities, and you all come together for one purpose. It doesn’t matter who you get in that locker room; it’s what you can produce on the field together. And that’s what I found: I can take wild swings on a character level because, at the end of the day, it’s all about getting that [championship] ring.”
Steve Zahn, Quentin Plair and Clayne Crawford in Chad Powers.Credit: Disney/Daniel Delgado Jr
If that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because Chad Powers shares similar DNA with Jason Sudeikis’ hit football comedy Ted Lasso, which also had its origins in a skit that was made to promote US network NBC’s coverage of the English Premier League.
Throw in this year’s Stick, which starred Owen Wilson as a washed-up former golf pro finding joy in the game again as he coached a young up-and-comer, and it feels like middle-age men are having quite the time reliving their thwarted sporting careers on screen.
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Says Powell: “When we started kicking around the idea of the show, and we were talking to former athletes, we asked them, ‘What would it be like if you tried to go back to college and play again? Do you think you’d be any good? How do you think you’d navigate it?’ There is not one person I asked that their eyes didn’t absolutely light up with just the thought of it.
“When you take that helmet off for the last time, and you take your pads off for the last time, there is something ceremonially that dies so within you, you’re no longer out on that field, you’re no longer a competitor in the same way … The idea of finishing the game that you didn’t finish before, that’s a universal feeling, as there’s always something we’d want to go back to and get right.”
Glen Powell (under a lot of prosthetics) in Chad Powers.
Adds Zahn: “There’s something very tribal about sports. And it’s easy to make fun of, because you can go to a game and hug strangers … I always feel sorry for people that don’t have that. I have moments in my life where I’m just crying because of my team and that’s kind of great.”
Zahn’s Coach Hudson is the quiet heart of Chad Powers. Whereas Powell gets the flashy footballer, Zahn just about steals the show as a man battling with a marriage break-up, an overbearing bouffant blonde boss (again, see Ted Lasso) and a sometimes uneven relationship with his daughter.
Steve Zahn (centre)Credit: Disney
“He’s locked into this job that’s taking every second ounce of his energy and time,” says Zahn. “He’s got his daughter with him, which is beautiful, and they’re tight, but it’s a strain on his relationship with his wife. There’s real-deal stuff happening in this show, and that’s what I love about it. There’s this absurd comedy, with this guy with prosthetics, and then there’s these other issues that I find really compelling and moving.”
The last word goes to Powell, who insists you don’t have to be into sport to find these sporting stories moving. “The vulnerability of loving something that can be taken away from you at any given time, that’s a universal element that’s not just isolated to sports, you know?” says Powell. “I think we all feel that fragility.”
Chad Powers is now streaming on Disney+.
