The latest offering from Happy Madison Productions, Home Team, features a surprise cameo from its real-life subject, Sean Payton. Directed by Charles and Daniel Kinnane from a script written by Chris Titone and Keith Blum, the new movie features an all-star comedy cast of Adam Sandler's famous friends, including Kevin James, Rob Schneider, Taylor Lautner, and Saturday Night Live star Chloe Fineman. Home Team adapts the real-life story of New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton, who coached his 12-year-old son’s football team during his year-long suspension from the National Football League.
Sean Payton faced his suspension in the wake of the “Bountygate” scandal, in which several members of the New Orleans Saints were found to have been paying illicit bounties to injure members of opponent teams. Many players faced serious consequences when the scandal was uncovered in 2009, and Payton was suspended from coaching professional football for one year for his failure to stop the underground activities. The film covers that year-long period, in which Payton found continued fulfillment in coaching football for children and bonding with his son.
If devoted NFL fans look carefully, they’ll catch a glimpse of the real Sean Payton in the movie. He makes a brief cameo appearance in the movie’s final moments as Lionel, a janitor at the New Orleans Saints training facility who warmly welcomes movie-Sean (Kevin James) back to work at the end of his one-year suspension. The moment only lasts about twenty seconds, but it offers audiences a sentimental moment of reflection on what Payton has learned, and where his career will lead him in the future.
Sean Payton’s cameo as Lionel the janitor is the latest in a long line of movies that feature their real-life subject in a small role. In the final scene of The Pursuit of Happyness, the real-life Chris Gardner crosses by Will and Jaden Smith as they approach a better future on the horizon. Julia Roberts is waited on by the real Erin Brockovich in her namesake movie. And Leonardo DiCaprio is famously introduced to a crowd at the end of The Wolf of Wall Street by none other than Jordan Belfort himself. A cameo is a reliable way to give a nod to the individual who lent his or her life story to the picture.
While it is far from the first movie to show off its inspiration in a cameo, Home Team takes advantage of the opportunity to make a heartfelt moment even more impactful. For those who don’t know that Lionel the janitor is actually Sean Payton, the interaction between the two men is a great scene on its own. For the people who do know, it means that much more.