Omar Epps is at Apex: coming off Juice and before Higher Learning, he was one of the great sports-movie actors, before things faltered after ER. — Bill Simmons
Craig Sheffer is a yes, and this is also the Apex of his tall tales, including a reported Parcells letter about backing up the Patriots' quarterback; one participant says he read it and it was true, though it amounted to Parcells saying he would love to have him around. — Bill Simmons
The guy who played Latimer is absolutely at Apex. — Bill Simmons
The film may be the Apex Mountain for steroids, before the McMahon trial and baseball's reckoning; it is called wildly irresponsible steroid porn, and the case is agreed with.
Asked whether Princeton had a urine guy, the speaker jokes he was named Kevin and charged $100. — Kyle Brandt
A final Apex question is whether this is when people realized Michigan sucks, with its image turning from Big Chill favor to loathsome; Weyman's draft stock is also debated. — Bill Simmons
Steve Lattimer (Andrew Bryniarski); Darnell-Ray feud; Kane Is Able bumper sticker; 80,000-fans chemistry-experiment line; bow-tie academic; Darnell's dating theory; jock adrenaline factor; Latimer's injection scene; Chris Berman
Latimer's actor says not a day goes by without someone yelling "place at the table"; he is unrecognizable as a neo-Nazi in Higher Learning and later played Leatherface, but this was his best role. — Bill Simmons
Latimer belongs on a Mount Rushmore of football-movie characters and is a 1990s ogre in the Donald Gibb mold. — Kyle Brandt
Why he never became a lead in action movies is a great question: he can act, as in the scene telling Alvin not everybody has his ability, and he has the look. — Kyle Brandt
It is a tough lane (Jeff Speakman's The Perfect Weapon is cited); a theory holds that distractingly striking people struggle to carry vehicles, like a Peter Parker versus Spider-Man distinction. — Ryen Russillo
He could have been Dalton's younger brother in Road House; his credits include Necessary Roughness, Street Fighter, Higher Learning, Any Given Sunday, Rollerball and the Texas Chainsaw remake. — Bill Simmons
The Darnell versus Ray feud is distinct, with Ray modeled on the Beverly Hills Cop banana-in-the-tailpipe type and the pair likened to Carlton versus the Fresh Prince; everyone roots for Darnell though he is kind of a dick. — Bill Simmons
Halle Berry is called terrible in the film for breaking up with Ray at a party and following Darnell, with a joke about her Monster's Ball Oscar speech. — Ryen Russillo
The "Kane Is Able" bumper sticker is a great psych gag. — Bill Simmons
The spitting into each other's mouths was computer-generated after the fact according to both actors in the oral histories, a disappointment; don't spit in friends' mouths during COVID. — Bill Simmons
The line asking when 80,000 people last showed up to watch a kid do a chemistry experiment captures why football matters at colleges, and the bow-tie academic is a required stock character.
Darnell's theory for dating Halle Berry's character, going where white people go like skating and bowling, is called cutting edge.
The jock, adrenaline factor holds up: in 1993 the Pantera-loving jocks had Latimer as their guy, and rewatching felt like being back in the high school weight room. — Kyle Brandt
Latimer injecting himself in the backside is rough on nicer TVs; the speaker says he has never used, and nobody he knows went straight to curls after injecting, especially with dated dumbbells. — Ryen Russillo
An unanswerable Berman question: was Tim Weyman's name written so Berman could say he could "go all the Wayman"; Berman's nickname riffs, such as Jeff Conine the Barbarian, suggest he made it up on the spot.
A recent Berman story: a joke nickname "Jeremy double chin" made on a podcast four days earlier was used by Berman on Monday Night Football 18 hours later; Berman has aged both the best and the worst. — Bill Simmons
