Home Team is now streaming on Netflix, and it’s already a hit as it’s No. 4 on Netflix’s top 10 list. The film takes a look at Sean Payton coaching his son’s football team when he was suspended from the NFL in 2012. But the question is who is responsible for getting the film launched? PopCulture.com recently caught up with Chris Titone who stars in Home Team and is also a writer of the film. He revealed that it was someone close to both him and Payton who got the entire process started.
“My girlfriend, Meghan Payton, actually came up with it,” Titone told PopCulture of his girlfriend, who is also the daughter of Sean Payton. “She was working at NFL Network, and she did a small feature piece. It was four or five minutes long, on NFL Network, about this story, about Sean, what he did with his time off. And they aired it, and I learned a lot about it. I was kind of her assistant during it. Holding her purse, getting her coffee, all that stuff. So I learned so much about the story and when it aired, it was so awesome. I just sent it to my whole family.”
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Titone has a family who is connected in Hollywood, as his sister is Jackie Sandler, the wife of Adam Sandler. When Adam Sandler saw the NFL Network feature piece, he told Titone, “Dude, you got to write that movie.” Titone said he was surprised to learn that the former New Orleans Saints coach and the NFL were happy with what Titone wrote.
“I’ve known Sean for six years. I’ve been with Meghan for six years,” Titone said. “So I know him pretty well. I think the most surprising part about him and the NFL is how cool they were with what I wrote. It’s a touchy subject, and you never know if Sean’s going to be like, ‘Eh, don’t write that.’ Or the NFL’s going to be like, ‘Nope. You ain’t getting the way that.’ Because they had to sign off on this, of course. And they were both really, really cool. No roadblocks.
In Home Team, Kevin James plays Payton, Jackie Sandler stars as his ex-wife Beth, Taylor Lautner stars as the head coach of Payton’s son’s football team and Rob Schneider stars as Beth’s husband Jamie. Titone plays Will, who is an overly zealous father of one of the sons on the football team — and he admitted that he had multiple accents in the film.
“So you know how there’s always a couple dads on the sideline or in the stands that are like, ‘You’re doing it wrong. My boy’s the best player on the team. Put my boy in.’ That’s my character,” Titone explained. “And my son, who’s played by Maxwell Simkins, He’s phenomenal. He’s going to be Chris Farley in 10 years. He’s the worst player on the team. And I’m literally like, ‘You need to put my boy in. Put my boy in right now.’ I’m Texas, so I’m doing that crazy accent. By the way, my accent in it is all over the place. I’m North Texas, South Texas, East, West, Central. No accent, some scenes.”
