My mom threw me in AYSO. The city I grew up in Southern California had the Irvine Soccer Club. I played that for five years. Soccer is probably my best sport. In California, basketball and soccer are the same seasons. They’re both a fall sport. I had to choose one or the other. I was really tall and I went with basketball. That’s one of my big sports regrets.
I could have played for the Chicago Fire. . . . Isn’t that the team around here?
I might have gotten a college scholarship.
I went to this past World Cup. I saw the Paraguay-Sweden game and the U.S.-Italy game. Our only goal in that game was a deflection off an Italian player. We’ll take what we can get.
We looked at a lot of the old stuff from the ABA, photos, what little footage there is. They didn’t have a TV contract. That’s where we got the wardrobes and outfits. The entire framework and feel of the movie is taken from all the research we did.
Andre (Benjamin) kept saying Woody (Harrelson), but I think I have a better overall game.
I played basketball in high school. I was a power forward. I still play now and then. I’m OK. I can play.
I was varsity junior and senior year. I was captain my senior year. It was kind of fun. I had to give a speech at school assemblies. Those were kind of fun because you could make fun of the faculty.
I always loved comedies, but I was like, “That’s so tough to break into.” I love sports. I went to USC and they had the sports journalism program. I wanted to be a broadcaster. When I graduated and was trying to put a tape together I realized it was as hard as anything else. I started doing some stand-up and some sketch comedy and realized if they’re equally as hard, I’ll give comedy a shot.
He (1) likes to work fast. In and out. He was tough. He was intimidating. We would be like, “Mike, we need to go again” and he would say, “What? If you were a receiver and you dropped the ball, you wouldn’t get a second chance. C’mon guys.” He’s kind of a big teddy bear.
I hope he didn’t get bugged too much because all the dudes on the set would ask him questions about football like, “What was this guy like?”
There’s nothing on the horizon. I’ll probably retire from sports movies for now.
I have to say me, because I actually went to the school (2). I never seen him (3) at the game. I knew he went to practice a couple times. I always see Marcus Allen and Ronnie Lott down on the sidelines.
I do have a Fred Perry gold-and-cardinal track suit that I like to wear. I wear it to the games. That’s as close as I have to a good-luck charm.
It was for the most part great–people cheering me (4). The only time it got annoying was when runners with disposable cameras would take pictures next to me. Frat guys would come by with a full beer trying to get me to drink a beer when I was running this race. That got a little old.
There’s Heartbreak Hill at the 20-mile mark when you hit the wall. You have to do a mile running up this hill. You’re in the most pain you can imagine. There was this guy that startled me. He ran in trying to take my photo. I literally knocked the camera out of his hands and knocked him out of the way. I was in the zone, “I have to get through this.” And then it was, “Oh great, I’m going to get sued.”
I first did him on “Weekend Update.” Enough people knew him at the show and were like, “OK, let’s try this.” It was so great because it worked with the audience even if they didn’t know who Harry Caray was. I would get fan mail that was like, “I love when you do the crazy scientist guy.”
(1). Mike Ditka, Ferrell’s co-star in “Kicking and Screaming.”
(2). University of Southern California
(3). Snoop Dogg, an avid USC fan.
(4). At the Boston Marathon in 2003.
