Stealth Catholicism: How Have I Watched ‘Any Given Sunday’ …

Last updated on: July 10, 2015 at 7:02 pm by Kate O'Hare

Stealth Catholicism: How Have I Watched ‘Any Given Sunday’ … 2015-07-10T19:02:18-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

… like, 20 times over the years, and never noticed these things?

I’ve always been a big fan of the 1999 Oliver Stone film (he’s kind of a loon, but I do like some of his movies — and we share the same birthday, so he can’t be all bad) about a professional football team, and I watch it about every time it comes on TV.

But it was not until today that realized a few things:

When Miami Sharks coach Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino) invites new quarterback Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx) over to his house for conversation and bad jambalaya, the Bible-era drama”Ben-Hur” is playing on the TV — in particular, the very famous chariot-race scene. (The picture below shows Charlton Heston, as Judah Ben-Hur, morphing into Pacino.)

Then later in the movie, Heston comes back in the flesh, this time playing the football commissioner — which I guess is the next closest thing to Moses in the sport.

(Heston wasn’t a Catholic, but he was an Episcopalian back when that actually meant something.)

Also, in the climactic game of the movie, the Sharks go up against the Dallas Knights, whose uniforms have a vaguely Crusader flair (and, confusingly, there’s another team actually called the California Crusaders).

As you see below, the Knights’ chaplain is dressed like a Catholic priest. But there’s more to the story. Bruce Hardy, the former general manager of Texas Stadium — former home of the Dallas Cowboys — played the part, his only movie role.

From a 2014 post at The Dallas Morning News:

When the Oliver Stone-directed Any Given Sunday was filming at Texas Stadium, Hardy said he was giving a boy and his family a tour. On a couple of occasions, he received hostile reactions from the production staff who didn’t want them around. After they yelled at him and the family, Hardy said he gave a movie staffer an ultimatum.

“You got 10 minutes to get Oliver Stone, you and [producer] Clayton Townsend in my office,” he said. “I said, ‘Oliver, I don’t know where in the hell you come from, but in this area, we say ‘thank you’ and ‘please.’ ”

Hardy told them that the next people who yelled at the staff or a visitor would get thrown off the property.

“I guess they thought I was serious, because we had six weeks of the greatest filming ever,” Hardy said.

Hardy even got a small (very small) role in the movie as one of the team chaplains. But he said his speaking part was cut because of professional football Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas.

Unitas was supposed to cuss out some people, but Hardy said the staff couldn’t get him to swear. That meant part of that scene was cut, and Hardy lost his speaking role.

Hardy says he still gets about $20 or $30 a year, after taxes, in residuals for appearing in that movie.

Oh, and Catholic actor Jim Caviezel, who played the title role in “The Passion of the Christ,” played Coach D’Amato’s estranged son, but he wound up on the cutting-room floor (but he can be seen in DVD extras from “The Oliver Stone Collection”).

Here’s a look:

As for Stone (whose son Sean may or may not be Muslim), his mother was a non-practicing French Catholic, and he once taught at a Catholic high school in Saigon — but one could never mistake him for a friend of the Faith.

James Woods, who plays the Sharks’ team physician Dr. Harvey Mandrake, is a Catholic and former altar boy who apparently once lectured Stone on the ins and outs of Confession on the set of another of his movies, “Salvador.”

From Adherents.com:

James Woods (a Catholic actor who was born in Vernal, Utah) demonstrates his familiarity with Catholicism in this story he recalls from when he was starring in Oliver Stone’s film Salvador. From: James Riordan, Stone: The Controversies, Excesses, and Exploits of a Radical Filmmaker, Hyperion: New York, NY (1995), pages 164-165:One of the greatest scenes in the movie, and the one most referred to when [James] Woods’s Oscar-nominated performance is discussed, is where Boyle [the character played by Woods] goes to confessoin for the first time in thirty-two years. “I remember the day we were shootin the Romero assassination scene at the church and Oliver said maybe you should do a confession,” Woods recalls. “And I said, ‘Oh really? First of all, let me tell you something, Oliver. You don’t go to confession on the morning before the Mass. And he says, ‘Well, they won’t know the difference.’ Right. There’s like eighty million Catholics in the United States but they won’t notice. Sure. And the irony is, they didn’t. He was right. That’s what’s so aggravating about him!

On a side note, I did a 2004 interview with Foxx — who had been a QB in high school — in which he talked about being at the bottom of the end-zone pile after his character scored a game-winning touchdown by leaping over the goal line. Foxx said it was the hardest part of the role, since breathing got very difficult with several NFL-sized men playing defenders stacked on his back. He said it seemed like an eternity until the last guy was pulled away.

Or, as it’s also known, just another day in the NFL … where there’s always a Catholic influence not far away.

Images: Courtesy Warner Bros (poster); screenshots

Don’t miss a thing: head over to my other home at CatholicVote and like my Facebook page.

movies

NFL

video

Previous Post

July 10, 2015

'Self/Less': An Accidental Morality Play

Next Post

July 11, 2015 'Of Kings and Prophets': Biblical Tale Gets a Dramatic Do-Over

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz