Thanksgiving weekend will not only feature NFL football. Paramount+ recently released the official trailer of the NFL comedy film Fantasy Football which stars Marsai Martin, Omari Hardwick and Kelly Rowland. The movie will premiere on Paramount+ on Nov. 25 and includes the support of the Atlanta Falcons and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
As the official synopsis of Fantasy Football states, “Callie A. Coleman (Martin) discovers she can magically control her father, Bobby’s (Hardwick) performance on the football field. When Callie plays as her dad, a running back for the Atlanta Falcons, in EA SPORTS Madden NFL 23, Bobby is transformed from a fumblitis-plagued journeyman to a star running back bound for superstardom alongside his daughter and wife Keisha (Rowland).”
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Martin is a producer on the film and told Entertainment Tonight that Fantasy Football was originally developed as a father-son story. “Having it, at the core, being a father-daughter thing is absolutely beautiful,” Martin said. . “My dad is a big Madden fan… He loves everything football, so just like how your dad teaches the kid how to drive, that was my dad teaching me how to play Madden.”
Hardwick knows football well as he played college football at the University of Georgia. When speaking with Interview Magazine in 2016, Hardwick talked about making the transition from football to acting. “There was a moment when I was sitting in the locker room—I think it was the junior year of playing ball,” Hardwick said. “I knew that could finish in four [years] in the classroom, but I had another year of eligibility because of transferring from Furman University to University of Georgia.
“The only way I could continue to play ball is if I took up a minor. I always had an interest in telling stories. I thought, ‘Maybe a football player is telling a similar story just without dialogue.’ There’s not a lot of sports that have as many people on the field as football. Does it liken itself to a set environment? Perhaps. I started thinking that way. I thought, “I should fricking minor in theater!” Fantasy Football also stars Elijah Richardson, Hanani Taylor, Abigail Killmeier, Tyla Harris and Isac Ivan, and features special star appearances by Nate Burleson, Jim Nantz and Tony Romo.
