Invincible Simmons muffs the punt

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060920

Simmins writes:

So will "Gridiron Gang," the latest sports movie to ride the whole "based on a true story" tag. That's Hollywood's way of saying, "the real story was much less interesting, we spruced it up for you." Um, shouldn't we start figuring out where to draw the line on this one? At the end of "Invincible," Mark Wahlberg's character blocks a punt for the Eagles and runs it back for a touchdown, and I remember thinking at the time, "Well, they went too far, nobody in their right mind will ever believe that happened." Then I was discussing it with my father last week, who enjoyed the movie and sounded shocked when I mentioned the rigged ending.

"Really?" he asked. "That didn't happen? I mean, they said it was based on a true story."

Yeah, exactly. BASED on a true story.

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The movie did not have him blocking a punt.

It had him picking up a muffed punt and running it in.

They showed the actual footage in the credits.

Moron.

 

Oops. Helps to be right when you're going to be a smartass.

 

But... he's the Sports Guy. Doesn't he know all?

 

Fact checking must be as icky to him as interviewing sources.

 

He has editors that are supposed to do that. Both are to blame here.

 

He has editors?

 

If the copy editors make six figures, then perhaps.

 

What do you expect? He's writing about a sport other than one in which the ball is round,
and relatively large. Like SAS, Bill's ignorance is wide-ranging.

 

Are you saying Simmons prefers smaller balls?

 

It also has nothing to do with the Red Sox, shmoozing with the stars ala Dick Cavett and sitting on his couch like a brainless goof.

 

just for the record, the movie did kind of make it up. you couldn't return a muffed punt then, only recover it. in real life, papale recovered it and the eagles kicked a field goal to win. in the movie, he returned it for a td.

 

He's got that, along with another pretty significant correction, in his NFL column today.