We were telling the truth: The rise and demise of ESPNs controversial hit series, Playma

Omar Goodings IMDB page is extensive, with more than 100 credited parts, but theres one small role that still stands out to him in his career, one show that people on the street still ask him about.

Omar Gooding’s IMDB page is extensive, with more than 100 credited parts, but there’s one small role that still stands out to him in his career, one show that people on the street still ask him about.

“What happened with ‘Playmakers?’”

In 2003, ESPN released an 11-episode scripted drama about a fictional pro football team, the location-non-specific Cougars. Gooding played Demetrius Harris, the hotshot rookie running back with a drug problem — one that led the character to obtain and smoke drugs on the loading dock at halftime.

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That was just one of numerous controversial storylines in “Playmakers,” a show that pushed the envelope, opening a window into topics that football tried to publicly avoid, such as addiction, domestic violence, homophobia and more.

The series was an immediate hit with more than 2 million viewers each week, becoming ESPN’s highest-rated broadcast outside of live football. It won an American Film Institute honor as one of the top 10 TV shows of 2003, alongside “The Wire” and “24.”

But the NFL didn’t like the portrayal of football and its players in soap opera-like dramatic storylines. ESPN canceled the series after one season.

“I don’t know that a hit show’s ever been pulled,” says former ESPN executive vice president Mark Shapiro, now the president and COO of Endeavor Group. “A hit show doesn’t get pulled when it’s just getting started.”

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, whose most recent NFL book is titled “Playmakers” as a nod to the show, says the decision “was a snapshot of the immense power the NFL has acquired, the power it wields and the lack of hesitation to do so in every relationship the NFL has.”

Yet two decades later, the show still resonates with fans and those involved in its creation. The Athletic spoke with more than a dozen actors, writers, directors and executives about the show, reflecting on its success, its downfall and its legacy.

“Part of the reason it lives on in people’s consciousness,” says creator John Eisendrath, “is that people know what happened to it.”

Some quotes have been edited for length and clarity.

In the early 2000s, ESPN hoped to become more than games and highlights and looked to create and own its content. In 2002, it released “A Season on the Brink,” a film adaptation of a book about Bobby Knight, as well as “The Junction Boys,” a film about Bear Bryant’s Texas A&M football training camp.

In late 2002, Shapiro put out word that ESPN wanted to develop a TV series. Scripts came pouring in, including one called “The Red Zone” by John Eisendrath, who’d written for “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Alias,” and who found real-life drama in sports.

Shapiro: We launched ESPN original programming to focus on non-traditional programming like scripted, documentaries, programming that would grow our audience, aiming for the more casual sports fan, focused on storytelling and not as much stick-and-ball.

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Orly Adelson, executive producer: I had done (“The Junction Boys”) with ESPN and was developing other movies with them like the Dale Earnhardt movie. Mark Shapiro calls me one day and says, “I read this script, and I love it.” The minute he read the script, he knew.

Eisendrath: I’d originally written it for FX and they didn’t do it, so it sat in my drawer. … I’d always wanted to write about male relationships, and sports is a great backdrop. I did a lot of research, talked with sports agent Leigh Steinberg. He set me up with a lot of players. I remember thinking, what scares them? I asked them what they feared.

Adelson: If you read scripts as often as I do, the good ones stand out. It was about people you cared about going through really interesting dilemmas and situations. But you still cared for each one of them. That’s hard to come by.

Eisendrath: (ESPN) really understood what I was trying to do and they were really gung-ho about it.

Shapiro and ESPN renamed it “Playmakers” and ordered 11 episodes, to be made by Adelson’s production company. Next came the process of casting. There were live auditions in Los Angeles for weeks.

Jason Matthew Smith, who played linebacker Eric Olczyk: The first time I went (to audition), I was just getting out of a relationship, and I’d lost a lot of weight. They liked me but didn’t think I fit the role. My agent says to me, “I talked them into seeing you again. You’ve gotta bulk up.” So I went on weight-gainer and in 10 days I gained 20 pounds and was working at the gym with heavy weights. I went into the next audition wearing extra sweatshirts, I’d shaved my head and grew the goatee. They didn’t even recognize me.

Eisendrath: I was like, whoa, this guy really wants it.

Christopher Wiehl, who played quarterback Derek McConnell: I was making $50,000 an episode (on another show) and “Playmakers” only paid $15,000. I go to my manager. This is a series about a professional football team? I’ve gotta get in on this. I remember going in to John and Orly and I did a monologue they gave me. Libby Goldstein was doing casting. They wanted me to come back and talk about playing the lead (as Olczyk). But Libby says, “Chris, I think you’re the quarterback, not the linebacker.” I’m 6-3, have more of a quarterback build.

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Russell Hornsby, who played running back Leon Taylor: It’s like my third acting job. The script is cool, but I would be getting paid $5,000 less than what I got on “Gideon’s Crossing.” You’re young and not thinking. My agent didn’t want me to do it because of the money either. My agent’s assistant, Andrew (Rogers), calls and says, “I read the script a third time. This is going to be big. You should do it.” I’m like, who the f— is this? I say, screw it, I’m doing it. Thank God I did. When I came back from shooting, I went to the office and I said, “Where is the guy who called me, Andrew? I want him to be my agent.” Twenty years later, he’s still my agent.

Marcello Thedford, who played offensive lineman Kevin “Buffalo” James: I met the producers and they grew to like me. I’m a big guy. The nickname in the show, “Big Sexy,” that’s my nickname in real life. A lot of me was in that character and they bought into me. I’m an unapologetically big guy.

Gooding: I started as a child actor. The first day of high school, I tried out for the football team. The coach gave a big speech about dedication and said practice starts today. I was like, “Uh, I’m filming today.” I never got to play. So when I saw this script, I was all in. I had never been so excited and determined to book something in my life. The audition was great, I booked it, and off we go to Toronto.

The group gathered in Toronto for filming from May to October 2003. The show filmed game scenes at the Skydome, home of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Canadian Football League players filled out most of the roster, either as background players or football stunt doubles. There was no training camp for the actors, but several, like Hornsby, Smith and Wiehl, had played football in high school.

Hornsby: I was in pretty damn good shape. We’re running plays and I’m feeling good. I can see the other players love-tapping me. You get that swag. I’m talking sh–, nobody can catch me. I said, take the gloves off. I juked one dude to the left, came back to the right, looked left and POP. Whewwww! I said, from now on, my stunt double is running for me.

Smith: It was pretty heavily monitored to not allow us too much in harm’s way. I begged them, and whenever producers weren’t looking, I’d jump in and do my fair share. I hadn’t played football in like 10 years. It was a dream come true to go back. It’s every guy’s fantasy.

Wiehl: A guy with the (Toronto) Argonauts, we trained a couple weeks beforehand. By the time I was there, I was throwing 35-40 yards. I completely threw out my arm. I’m a young guy, “Yeah, I can do the (electric stimulation therapy) and the real ice baths.” My shoulder still twitches from all that electronic stuff that was going through my shoulder.

T.J. Scott, director for two episodes: Chris was like, “I want this to be real.” Oh my God, we almost gave him frostbite, because he had to sit in there to shoot the whole scene, different angles and different dialogue.

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Gooding: There’s a scene where I’m racing Russell. It was the most taxing thing I’d ever done in filming. The athletes were saying they didn’t have to run as much as we did. The last time I ran it, I heard a pop in my hamstring and I hit the floor. Russell used to run track! He knew how to stretch and be prepared. I’m an actor!

Hornsby: Omar had a good case of sh–-talking. I was like, “Hey, man, you gotta stretch, brother.”

Wiehl: We had some injuries, especially the first couple weeks.

Adelson: The camaraderie amongst the guys was so fantastic. Everybody was there to do a good show.

Smith: We were all in it together. From the first dinner we had together, we were so excited to be in this. That electricity brought us all really close together.

Shapiro: This was new territory, a big swing for us and for me personally. … It was like giving birth to a new baby.

Smith: That dinner the first night in Toronto at a steakhouse, the head of the ESPN network said, “Look, we’re all excited about this. If you get good ratings, I can guarantee we’re going to renew this thing.” He threw out some number, and we blew that number out of the water.

The premiere on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2003, drew in 2.6 million viewers. The series averaged around 2.2 million per episode, five times what ESPN previously had in that time slot, according to the Los Angeles Times. Viewership with women was up. It was ESPN’s highest-rated program outside of “Sunday Night Football” and prime-time Saturday college football.

The show’s stars became celebrities in the sports world.

Smith: Russell and I went over to see a Buffalo Bills game, kind of in disguise. I had sunglasses and a hat. We had good seats behind the Eagles bench. Russell goes, “C’mon, take that off.” I finally did and all of a sudden I could feel everyone in the crowd pointing at me. Even the players. Then it’s halftime and I go to the bathroom. It was full-on Beatlemania.

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Hornsby: It was fun. Like, what the hell is going on, guys? People are yelling “Leon!”

Smith: That was the first time I really knew there was something special about the show.

Snoop Dogg, who played DH’s brother Edwin, as told in a behind-the-scenes feature: I had seen a couple episodes and I was like, I really want to be on this show. Instead of them calling me, I want to call them. I let them know I was a fan and wanted to be a part of it. They wanted me on, so I flew to Canada.

Michael Angeli, writer and co-executive producer: We had to make sure Snoop Dogg would be OK wearing plaid.

Shapiro: George Bodenheimer was president of ESPN, and it was Week 3 or 4, and he said he was irritated. If he was getting a cup of coffee or picking up his cleaning, all anybody wanted to talk about was “Playmakers.” Rather than talk about games, they wanted to talk about where “Playmakers” was headed. … We knew we had a hit on our hands.

Gooding: The first time I go to Vegas after we finished filming, I got absolutely mobbed at a casino. I’d known success, but this was success. People yelling, “Oh, my God, DH!” I needed security to get out of there. I’ve got people coming up to me, and I’m like, are you confusing me with my brother (Cuba Gooding Jr.)?

Thedford: I was out with some friends at a club in a VIP booth. There was this other big guy sitting over there. His team says to me, “He wants to talk to you.” I had words with Warren Sapp! It almost turned ugly. I don’t know if he remembers, but it was about to be on. He felt I was being him on camera, that I was making him look bad, but also looking good too, being around girls and flashy. He told me I’m telling too much truth. Well, I don’t write the show. I’m an actor, not a football player!

Hornsby: We realized how big it was when Tom Cruise was shooting “Collateral” in Los Angeles. There was a painted mural of the poster we had across from the Staples Center. He paid for that to stay up an extra six months because he wanted it in that movie. That’s how I knew we were hot.

The show immediately stood out for the edgy storylines off the field: Gooding’s character hiding drugs during a traffic stop; Wiehl’s character’s painkiller addiction; Thedford’s character’s obesity and diabetes; and domestic violence by Hornsby’s character. The show won a GLAAD Award for a storyline about a gay player.

Smith: All of us knew what we were doing would make waves. We knew it was going to be controversial, but that’s what makes it so good.

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Shapiro: We were extremely hands-on. John was notorious for stretching the envelope. We’re a family-friendly network and we know our audience better than anyone.

Gooding: The character arc challenged me. I don’t do any of those drugs. I’m like, “Does this look weird? Does this look right?”

Hornsby: One of the first moments I had to put my foot down creatively was where they wanted to emulate my character into like the O.J. (Simpson) kind of thing. … Initially, they had my wife as White. I said that can’t happen. That’s too much. We can’t just be spitting O.J., to the point where I was almost on the verge of quitting. I told my agent it’s not going to look good. We came to some understanding about that.

Eisendrath: I wanted to dig beneath the surface and show parts of this world we rarely see in the sports pages or on ESPN. I wanted to get as many deeply emotional parts of these athletes’ lives. I wanted to humanize them.

Angeli: We were totally ahead of the curve. ESPN were the greatest people to work for. All they cared about was making sure the numbers were right for linebackers. They’d read the script and notes would be about football. As far as the subject content, they really left us alone and loved it. For us, it was a gold mine. We got to stretch our legs.

This is certainly one way to pass a drug test, I suppose. #ESPN #Playmakers #AwfulClassics pic.twitter.com/hX5osO9iB6

— Jill (@jilldubs) March 21, 2019

Craig Sweeny (writer and producer): They always knew they were going to do an episode about the outing of a gay player. That was hard to do because it was entirely speculative. It hadn’t happened yet. What would the reactions be? There was debate in the writing room.

Eisendrath: There’s no question there are gay athletes in almost every locker room. To this day, some still feel self-conscious about being honest about that. I thought it would be good to wrestle with that question. I wanted most of the show to be about who these people are, as opposed to what they do.

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Angeli: It didn’t seem to bother anyone. There were gay players. They just couldn’t come out at the time. It was a bellwether moment. But it wasn’t controversial to us.

The NFL was upset about the show before it even aired.

According to multiple reports at the time, after a commercial for “Playmakers” depicting several of the drug storylines aired during an NFL preseason game in August, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue called Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner to express his concern. ESPN stopped promoting the show during “Sunday Night Football” but continued with the show.

Jeffrey Lurie (Philadelphia Eagles owner, to the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003): “How would they like it if Minnie Mouse were portrayed as Pablo Escobar and the Magic Kingdom as a drug cartel?

Tagliabue (to HBO in 2003): (It was) one-dimensional and traded in racial stereotypes, and I didn’t think that was either appropriate for ESPN or right for our players.

NFL players were mixed about the show.

Kevin Mawae (to ESPN.com in 2004): I think some of the issues that they hit on hit home with some guys. … But they took every worst-case scenario, put them all on the same team and unfortunately a lot of people that don’t really know football think that’s what we’re all about.

Willie Anderson (to ESPN.com): It’s one of those false interpretations people get about the NFL and the players.

Smith: Donovan McNabb was a fan. I heard he wanted to come on the show.

Donovan McNabb (to the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003): I’m waiting to get invited. I’m cheap. I won’t ask for a lot.

Shapiro: There were some owners quietly coming forward, looking for cameos in the show, but didn’t want to be reported to have interest. It was like the forbidden fruit.

Deion Sanders (to the New York Post in 2003): For guys to pretend it is not real, they underestimated the show. If they did the show with my old Cowboys or old Falcons, it was worse than that.

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Adding to the pressure on the show, ESPN was preparing to renegotiate its NFL contract, which ran through 2005. ESPN had “Sunday Night Football” and ABC had “Monday Night Football.” ESPN wanted “MNF.”

Eisendrath: I had no interest in slamming the NFL, doing something the NFL wouldn’t like. I didn’t even think about it. I was telling stories. I had no sense that it would be an issue. I didn’t have an ax to grind. I remember Gatorade dropped its sponsorship of the show at some point during the run. I was like, huh, that’s weird.

Shapiro: The ratings were growing week to week, it wasn’t something you could hide from. We tried to keep the league at bay. We informed them we’d be doing this series prior to launching it. They were quietly OK with it if we didn’t use NFL (intellectual property), which we didn’t. But then it took on a life of its own.

Hornsby: I’ll never forget, I was walking in New York and passing the ABC building. I run into Stephen A. Smith. He says, “Hey, brother, great job on the show. You know you’re not getting no second season. Too much. Too much. But great job.”

Because of the early success of ‘Playmakers,’ there were tentative story plans for season two, though it was never scripted. (David Giesbrecht / ESPN)

On Feb. 4, 2004, the day after the Super Bowl, “Playmakers” was canceled. Shapiro told the LA Times that the NFL’s reaction was the “primary factor” in deciding to cancel it, but it was his call. In April 2005, ESPN re-upped its deal with the NFL and became the home of “Monday Night Football.”

Shapiro: Both Michael Eisner and Bob Iger felt, after the season, given the pressure they were getting from the league, we had accomplished our mission. We broadened the audience, had a hit series, won awards. Coming back for a second season would be like sticking their nose in it. So they pulled the plug.

Eisendrath: Mark Shapiro called me. What I respect is he didn’t say, “We’d love to keep it on but we’ve got a lot of dog sledding” or some excuse. He was honest. He said we can’t keep it. The NFL doesn’t want us to. And that was it.

Former NFL executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly: To think that Paul (Tagliabue) said, “Take it off the air,” he would never do that. He would just say, please explain to me, with your largest programming content, why do you want to throw dirt in the eye of the hand that feeds you? … We didn’t pressure them to take it off the air. You could say (we) never had to, but all the episodes aired. It just wasn’t renewed.

Florio: When you have a very scarce product that is highly coveted, the supplier is always right. I’ve always been fascinated by that dynamic. The NFL has the power to dictate to its “broadcast partners” and it has no hesitation to do so. In the case of “Playmakers,” it made no qualms about it.

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Shapiro: The conversations with the press and the cast were tough. The conversation with John was emotional. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was an intelligence test. I wasn’t going to go to war with the two people who ran the company and, by the way, who heard me out. They just ruled against me.

Eisendrath: Critics loved it and fans loved it. For that show to get censored off the air, I can’t think of another show that’s ever happened to.

Angeli: (Eisendrath) was going to fight the good fight, take it to other networks. But it just couldn’t survive.

Eisendrath: (ESPN) wouldn’t have been willing to let it go anywhere else.

Smith: It was heartbreaking.

Wiehl: I gotta tell you, it’s still such a painful thing. It’s one of the jobs that I was really, really proud of. … We had critical acclaim and ratings. Normally with those, you’re on air for 10 years.

Because of the show’s early success, there were tentative story plans for season two, though it was never scripted.

Scott: Everyone was like, season two is for sure. It’s gonna go. Everyone loves it.

Wiehl: If I do my job right, season two is going to be all about McConnell. It was sort of Brett Favre. We talked about maybe McConnell’s dad dies, like Favre. That was going to be a storyline. There were big plans. … He was going to lead them to a Super Bowl.

Smith: His character had a lot more coming in season two. He was the quarterback but didn’t have a ton of story. The second season was going to focus a lot more on his character.

Thedford: I remember something about a Super Bowl run. We were going to make a run. I was going to get a girl pregnant. I believe DH was going to clean up and I was going to be the one that fell off.

Gooding: I remember us as a cast, we said, remember that poster where we’re all standing there? Next season, shirts off. Everyone’s going to be in such good shape before the season. It was shirtless for the poster and no stunt doubles. As soon as they say yes, we’re meeting up every day, running plays. We definitely had high hopes.

The only way to watch “Playmakers” is YouTube, where fans have uploaded the series, or by buying the old-fashioned DVD.

Eisendrath: It’s not available anywhere. To this day, I think it’s buried in some vault somewhere.

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Gooding: It was funny to me because after the show was finished, you’d see some stuff in the show making headlines, like players being exposed for this or that, coming out. We were telling the truth. We weren’t making up fictitious stuff. We were a little extra, all of it on one team, but we were still hitting the nail on the head.

Wiehl: I’ve done 25 years of television and it was my favorite part.

Hornsby: It felt like my last opportunity for me to relive my days as an athlete, the days of old. It was a lot of fun.

Eisendrath: The NFL is the reason “Playmakers” was taken off the air. Other people look at that and don’t want it to happen to them. Among the most powerful people in Hollywood are the commissioners of the NFL, NBA, big-time sports, because they’re the ones who get all the ratings, so they dictate.

Shapiro: We developed a tremendous college football series called, “The Fix” that was developed by the writers of “Billions.” It was college football players betting on the games and changing the outcome. Talk about being before its time. When we socialized that with college football commissioners, it was met with a great upheaval and we had to ditch that. Then we developed a movie with Bill Simmons on the behind-the-scenes of A-Rod signing with the Yankees after it appeared he was going with the Red Sox. MLB was unhappy with it and wouldn’t let us do it. Finally I threw my hands up like, I can’t continue down this road when all these leagues are voicing their displeasure and knowing we as a company will probably cave to the pressure.

Florio: It was something that had never been done and needed to be done.

In the final scene of the show, the team celebrates in the locker room for what it thinks is a playoff berth. “The only people who believed in us are the people in this room,” the head coach says, “and now, you are the hottest team in the league, and no one wants a piece of you. You all deserve this.”

Suddenly, the team turns on the TV, only to see a last-second touchdown in another game, keeping the Cougars out of the playoffs. The team stands, stunned, as a manager clicks off the TV and the show goes to black. Unexpected success, suddenly ripped away. Life imitating art imitating life.

(Photo courtesy of ESPN)

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