Committee Chairman
How Real is Willie Beamen?
How Real is Willie Beaman?
In the 2001 season, the once-great American Football team Miami Sharks, had a hard time making it to the AFFA (Associated Football Franchises of America) divisional playoffs. Coached by Tony D’Amato, the 30-year veteran that had seen it all, the team lost its starting quarterback Jack “Cap” Rooney, and second string quarterback Tyler Cherubini due to injuries.
This leaves the desperate Sharks to depend on their third-string QB, University of Houston graduate Willie Beamen. Never doing anything beyond warming the bench, Beamen pukeshis guts out and embarrasses the hell out of the Miami Sharks on the first few games, but then he just gets it and becomes the MVP, star quarterback that carries the team to glory.
You probably figured it out by now, this is the tale of Oliver Stone’s 1999 movie Any Given Sunday. Where Coach D’Amato is played by Al Pacino, Cap Rooney by Dennis Quaid, and rookie-turned-narcissist-starring-QB Willie Beamen is no other than Jamie Foxx.
It’s pretty cool to see the upsets that are taking place during the first games where Beamen is leading the Sharks as starting quarterback. At the beginning bookies wouldn’t give him and his team a chance, and when the movie was made there were no legal sports-betting apps that everyone can use from their mobile phone to place bets. But if it was today, the whole stadium would have pulled out their phones and use their sports-betting app for sure to place bets on the Miami Sharks every time Beaman threw up, as that became is trademark for winning plays.
So how much of this great American sports drama is based on true events? And does Beamen have any truth in him? Or is the Sharks hall-of-fame quarterback totally made up? The story is based on a novel by the same name written by ex NFL Defensive End, and Super Bowl champion Pat Toomay. Selected in the sixth round of the 1970 NFL draft by the Dallas Cowboys, he started an impressive football career which in addition to the Cowboys, included playing for the Buffalo Bills, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders. Toomay said that the characters are loosely based on actual players.
Although the NFL declined to participate, and supposedly issued a memo to teams suggesting they do not cooperate with the film, Jamie Williams who was the movie’s technical adviser and writer played in the league for 12 years, including playing as a Tight End for the San Francisco 49ers. Many others involved with the movie, other crew or cast, have played professional football at some point in their lives. And most said that Beamen is “very close to the real thing.”
Beaman is supposedly based on several NFL players, including Washington Redskins, Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams, Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback Randall Cunningham. Many also draw similarities to larger-than-life Defensive Back Deion Sanders who was one of the most interesting and famous players the NFL has seen.
And when asking Jamie Fox who played Beamen, he actually thinks the real-life Beamen is Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Dak Prescott. “He’s the real live Willie Beaman” said Jamie Foxx in an interview. But that may be due to Foxx being a die-hard Cowboys fan.
But if you are into real, non-fictional sports action, now is the time to get into the excitement of sports-betting, casino and poker mobile apps and websites, which are legal in many states in the US including Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Jersey, West Virginia, and many more states that are now in the process of signing legal bills that allow punters to legally download a sportsbook mobile app and place bets online safely and securely.
The University of Florida announces their 2020 HOF Class
Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB. Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives. Eventually, we plan to do that for the major colleges in the NCAA. As such, it is news to us that the University of Florida has announced the nine members of their Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2020.
The new members are:
Andrew DeClercq, Men’s Basketball (1991-95). DeClerq was a member of the Florida’s 1994 Final Four Team, and he was selected to the First Team All-SEC squad the following year. He started 128 Games for the Gators, which is still a school record. DeClercq later played a decade in the NBA with runs in Golden State, Boston, Cleveland and Orlando.
Billy Donovan, Men’s Basketball Coach (1996-15). Donovan led the Gators to back-to-back National Championships in 2006 and 2007, and was in the Final Four in two other years. Donovan is a six-time SEC Champion and three-time SEC Coach of the Year.
Shaune Fraser, Men’s Swinning and Diving (2006-10). Fraser was a three-time NCAA Champion (200-yard Butterfly in 2009 & 2010 & 200-yard Freestyle in 2009). Fraser was a seven-time individual SEC Champion and had 27 All-American honors, a school record. Fraser was also a two-time Olympian, representing the Cayman Islands (2004 & 2008).
Brandon James, Football (2006-09). James was a two-time National Championship Game winner with the Gators, and he was named the 2008 Special Teams Player of the Year. James is the only player in SEC history to have 4,000 combined Return Yards.
Miriam Kevkhishvili, Women’s Track & Field (2007-10). Kevkhishvili won five individual NCAA records (Indoor Shot Put 2008-10 & Outdoor Shot Put 2009-10) and helped Florida win the 2009 SECE Outdoor Championships and 2010 SEC Indoor Championships.
Hamid Mirzadeh, Men’s Tennis (2001-05). Mirzadeh was a five-time All-American and helped the Gators win two SEC Titles (2003 & 2005).
Brandon Spikes, Football (2006-09). Spikes helped Florida win two BCS Championships, and he was a two-time All-American. The Linebacker was a Finalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award (2009), Lombardi Award (2008), and Butkus Award (2008 & 2009). Spikes would play professionally for seven seasons with the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills.
Genna Spofforth, Women’s Swimming and Diving (2006-10). Spofforth led the Gators to an SEC Championship in 2009 and a National Championship in 2010. She is a seven-time individual NCAA Champion (100-yard Backstroke 2008-10, 200-yard Backstroke 2007-09 & 200-yard Freestyle Relay 2010) and earned 25 All-American honors. Spofforth represented Great Britain in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Tim Tebow, Football (2006-09). Tebow is the third former Gator to be honored this year who was part of two National Championship Teams. The Quarterback was the first sophomore to win the Heisman, and he was a Finalist for it two other times. Tebow also won the Maxwell Award twice, and is also a two-time SEC Offensive Player of the Year. Tebow threw for 9,286 Yards and 88 Touchdowns and rushed for 2,947 Yards and 57 Touchdowns.
The date and location of the ceremony, has yet to be determined.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to the impending members of the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame.
Our All-Time Top 50 Seattle Mariners are now up
Yes, we know that this is taking a while!
As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. We have a new one to unveil today, that of the Seattle Mariners.
Entering the American League as an expansion team in 1977, the Seattle Mariners have had a lot of great players, but despite that, they are the only team to have never appeared in the World Series.
As for all of our top 50 players in baseball we look at the following:
1. Advanced Statistics.
2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League.
3. Playoff accomplishments.
4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.
Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed an increased importance on the first two categories.
This list is updated up until the end of the 2019 Season.
The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article. They are:
We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.
Look for our All-Time Top 50 Tampa Bay Rays coming next!
As always we thank you for your support.
James Develin Retires
We have another significant retirement in the world of the National Football League, although many people outside of the New England fan base might understand why this is the case.
James Develin, the New England Patriots’ Fullback has announced his retirement through a post on his Instagram. He had this to say:
“Due to unforeseen complications with the injury that ended my season last year, I have decided it is both in my and my family's best interest to retire from the game of football. I've always maintained a belief that in the sport, the team is MUCH more important than myself as an individual ... and that belief still rings true, as I have to prioritize my team at home before anything else."
The injury that Develin was referring to was in his neck, and it held him to only two games in 2019.
Develin was undrafted in Brown in 2010 and after two years on the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad, he was signed by the New England Patriots in 2012. He was not used as an offensive weapon, but as a blocker for them. Develin would help the Patriots win three Super Bowls, and was named to the Pro Bowl in 2017.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to wish James Develin the best in his post-playing career.