Necessary Roughness (film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Necessary Roughness is a 1991 film starring Scott Bakula as Paul Blake, a former high school football star who gave up his dreams of playing college ball and probably going on to the pros to return home and run his family farm. When the Texas State University football team, the Fighting Armadillos, becomes involved in a scandal resulting in almost the entire team being expelled or disqualified, the new coaches must assemble a team from the ragtag group of goofballs willing to join... and the now thirty-plus Blake, lured to college and the team by the idea of finally putting to rest his dreams of what might have been.

It falls on Blake, as quarterback, and Coach Eddie "Straight Arrow" Gennero (Hector Elizondo) - a former big-time college coach lured to Texas State with the promise of building a program from the ground up, with no booster interference - to try and turn this strange group of nobodies into a Band of Brothers, while the entire time the team is under the baleful eye of Dean Elias, who hates college sports teams and wants any excuse to destroy the team and get rid of football forever. (Yeah, in Texas. As you can imagine, he's quite the popular guy.) Along the way he falls for one of his teachers, journalism professor Suzanne Carter, who he turns out to have a past with that he was completely unaware of.

The film averts one of the major underdog sports movie tropes. See, turns out that assembling a ragtag team of weirdos who have never played football doesn't suddenly rocket you to success and send you to the finals. The Armadillos have an absolutely terrible season, and in the end the final game isn't about winning the championships... it's about winning their pride and dignity instead.

Not to be confused with the USA network show of the same name.

Tropes used in Necessary Roughness (film) include:
  • Aint No Rule: There really isn't a rule that says a woman can't play college football -- and there actually have been a few female kickers at the college level in Real Life.
  • Aluminum Christmas Trees: Coach Gennero's appearance on ESPN is played like he's been exiled from coaching. In reality, plenty of coaches who have been fired or quit - in every sport - take up broadcasting for at least a year or two.
  • Berserk Button: You can insult Blake. You can call him names. You can even pour beer on him. But don't insult his center.
    • Said center has to be held back by the entire team when an opposing player cheap shots Lucy.
  • Big Word Shout: The announcer shouting "SHIIIT!" after the team's 8th loss.
  • Bodyguard Crush: Manumana for Lucy.
  • The Big Guy: Manumana, Blake's Hawaiian center. According to him, it means "runt of the litter".
  • Black and Nerdy: Sinbad as Andre Krimm, a former player who gave up the team to focus on academics. Blake lures him back. He has a hell of a tackle.

"Andre does not eat raw meat. Because Andre is a vegetarian."
"Eat whatever the hell you want, Andre."

  • The Cameo: Several NFL legends (including Dick Butkus, Tony Dorsett, Herschel Walker, and Earl Campbell, just to name a few) and a pro boxer (Evander Holyfield) appear as inmates when the team plays a "scrimmage" against a local prison.
  • Conscience Makes You Go Back - Lampshaded.
  • Dean Bitterman: Dean Phillip Elias. Believes sports have no place at college. Fine in itself, but he's willing to use every dirty trick in the book, including breaking all conceivable ethical guidelines, to get rid of college football. In Texas.
  • Expospeak Gag: Gennaro is hospitalized, and later is told what happened in technical terms... but it's just indigestion.
  • Five-Man Band
  • Gretzky Has the Ball: The scene where the referee gives up trying to tally all the penalties Samurai racked up when he punched out half the opposing offense: In reality, the other team would only be allowed to take one of the penalties, not all of them (not to mention Samurai would've been ejected from the game before the ref even started talking). Averted in the "take one of the penalties" sense, in that the ref finally gives up on the long list and ends with "15 yards, first down!" ...which is what the infraction would have given in real life (though, again, Samurai would be ejected.)
  • Groin Attack: "Welcome to football!" "Welcome to foot, balls!"
  • Glory Days - Blake's high school football years are this, but his father died and he gave up college years before to run the farm.
  • Honor Before Reason: He's called Eddie "Straight Arrow" Gennero for a reason.
  • Hypocritical Humor: After the bar fight:

Sheriff: "Brawl? There ain't no brawl."
Dean Elias: "First of all, it's 'there isn't any brawl'. Second, what do you mean there ain't no brawl?!"

  • Jerk Jock: Most of the Armadillos avert this, either by being good people or not being jocks. (Or at least, football jocks.) Their rival team, however, is made up of this. Their star linebacker, "Flat-top", could probably provide the trope page image.
  • No Colleges Were Harmed: Texas State is basically the University of North Texas (where the movie was mostly shot) with the Serial Numbers Filed Off[1]. However, the backstory for TSU is basically that of Southern Methodist University, the only school in NCAA history to receive the "Death Penalty"[2] for football. Meanwhile, the Armadillos' rival Texas Colts are an expy of what most people probably think of the Texas Longhorns.
  • Opposing Sports Team: The Texas Colts
  • Precision F-Strike: During an attempt at a Rousing Speech.
    • The announcer shouting "SHIIIT!" after the team's 8th loss.
  • Punch-Punch-Punch Uh-Oh - Blake gives Flat Top a one-two punch in the face after the latter insults his center. Flat Top is barely fazed (like he just got splashed with a faceful of cold water), prompting an utterance of "oh, Lord" from someone off-camera just before the ensuing Bar Brawl.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Armadillos
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Fred Thompson as Chancellor Purcell
  • Redemption Quest: Both for Blake (to prove to himself he had what it took to be a big time college QB) and for Coach Gennero (who was chased from his last job by boosters who hated him).
  • Smooch of Victory: Lucy kisses Manumana on the cheek after they win the last game. Manumana collapses in joy.
  • "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: Gennero certainly comes off as this, with his insistence that the team cannot afford to relax and enjoy themselves for even one night. Blake calls him on it, bitching Gennero out that he could have afforded to let the team just feel good about themselves for a single night.
  • Toplessness From the Back: Lucy in the shower room (to the joy of Kathy Ireland fans).
  • What the Hell, Hero?: After Coach Gennero humiliates the entire team in front of a group of boosters, Coach Riggendorf blasts him for turning what should've been a Moment of Awesome into a Humiliation Conga.
  1. ↑ North Texas has since changed names from the Armadillos to "The Mean Green"
  2. ↑ A complete shutdown of the program for an entire season. Which became two seasons because SMU didn't have enough eligible players when the ban was lifted.
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