‘The Underdoggs’ Director Charles Stone III Says Film Is ‘Bad News Bears’ With Snoop Dogg (Exclusive)

With Super Bowl LVIII just a couple of weeks away, Prime Video is getting fans ready with the release of the new film The Underdoggs. Snoop Dogg stars in the film that takes a look at him coaching a youth football team in Long Beach, California. PopCulture.com spoke to The Underdoggs director Charles Stone III, who compared the film to a classic youth sports comedy. 

“It’s the Bad News Bears set in the pee-wee football world with Snoop Dogg at the helm,” Stone told PopCulture. “That’s probably the best, I mean, I could go into like, ‘Coming-of-age story about a middle-aged man who blah, blah, blah,’ but that’s the best bet.”

Snoop plays a former football star named Jaycen “2 J’s” Jennings who gets into some legal trouble. He’s ordered to perform community service in his hometown of Long Beach, which leads to him coaching a struggling pee wee football team for selfish reasons. But as he learns more about the kids, Jaycen learns that they are a lot like him when he was their age and helps them to be strong competitors on the field and better kids in the community. 

The Underdoggs is based on Snoop’s real-life experience of creating the Snoop Youth Football League. “I knew of Snoop’s history in the SYFL and that he had created it,” Stone said. “I did not know that it’s been about 20 years worth and that there have been over 20-some-odd players who’ve gone on to be in the NFL. … I was blown away by the magnitude of it. I didn’t learn about that until I came on board.”

Stone is no stranger to directing sports movies as he directed the baseball film Mr. 3000 and the basketball film Uncle Drew. He even directed an episode of the popular football television series Friday Night Lights. But Stone didn’t want to direct The Underdoggs just because of the football aspect of it. 

“I came on board because I love the story. I’m a big fan of The Bad News Bears from the ’70s, and the idea of also cussing children I thought would be really funny in terms of the comedian in me, but also it’s very real,” Stone explained. “We’re being very realistic about kids cussing, respectfully, not necessarily in front of adults, but nonetheless.”

“It’s just the platform. The stage being football, it was just the stage, but for me, the story of a washed-up, talented ex-football player who ends up learning about himself through children, the experiences of children, is very powerful. It’s something that you see repeatedly in my work as a director is working with talented but extremely flawed characters and them working through their personal struggles to realize their superpowers, whether it be Stan Ross from Mr. 3000 or Jaycen ‘Two Js’ Jennings here in The Underdoggs.”

The Underdoggs is now streaming on Prime Video. Snoop stars in the flim with Tika Sumpter, Mike Epps, Andrew Schulz, Kal Penn, Kandi Burruss and George Lopez.