It's a movie that shows what the team truly means to the people of Philadelphia, and how a group of fans known for booing Santa Claus really feel about the men in green. Vince Papale is the man the movie (recently released on DVD) is based off of, a man who never thought a former underwear model/rapper/Dirk Diggler would portray his life story. "I never even heard of Mark Wahlberg," Papale laughs, "then my buddy told me to rent Boogie Nights.
" The artist formerly known as Marky Mark does a superb job capturing the spirit of the city, the man, and the team, providing throwback fans a trip back in time to when the Eagles were rebuilding, Dick Vermeil didn't cry, and people who were out of work could still afford to go to games. It also gives younger fans an inspirational look at the value of hope, and that if you believe enough in yourself, you really can achieve your dreams. Even if your ex-wife leaves you one of the nastiest notes in the history of breakups.
If you didn't see the movie, I won't spoil it for you, but if you did, know this: "After it was announced that I made the Philadelphia Eagles, I did receive a call from the ex-wife," says Papale. "But if I wasn't good enough then, why would I be good enough now? I was the same person.
I needed someone who would allow me to see my full potential." That phone call would've made a great ending to the movie, but for one curious fan of Invincible, it's the answer I was hoping to hear. IGN Sports: Is Jeff Garcia the type of Eagle in your mold, a player with heart who is leading the Eagles into the playoffs?
Vince Papale: Oh my God, he has won those Philadelphia fans over like nobody could've possibly imagined. Right now, he's the Invincible in Philadelphia. They love Garcia.
They love his fiery nature, and obviously they love the fact that he's winning games, but there's just this certain way that he's carried himself and conducted himself, not making any excuses, and he's been above board with everything. He's running the offense with efficiency, and supposedly this is the way it was meant to be run. He's just won the fans over.
They love him. I was signing recently at a Wal-Mart in South Philadelphia and word was out that Garcia was going to be there too. What they were going to do, they were sliding out the cover of the DVD jackets I was signing and they were going to have Garcia sign the cover because he is that new Invincible in town.
He has everybody in Philadelphia glued to their TV. I'm thinking he's going to run the table. IGN Sports: It was only a few years ago we booed him out of the Bay Area.
Vince Papale: A lot of it had to do with that terrorist you had on your team that is now disguised as a Dallas Cowboy. When you lose your team, you lose everything, and apparently that's what happened to Jeff. IGN Sports: Speaking of losing everything, that note your ex-wife wrote you was cold blooded.
Vince Papale: It was what it was. Maybe it wasn't so cold blooded. Maybe I needed a wakeup call.
I didn't think I did, but whatever it was, it certainly was a motivating factor along with a few other things that were going on in my life. What wasn't shown in the movie is that I was denied an opportunity to tryout for the Olympic decathlon in '72 when I had qualified for them. So that was pretty cold blooded as well because I didn't have the right pedigree.
Those were the two big motivating factors. IGN Sports: Why didn't anything about your track background make it into the movie? I was wondering how a 30 year old was out there running a 4.
5 40. Vince Papale: That's maybe one thing that they might have wanted to touch at, and I know it was considered, but I knew I was going to be out on a speaking tour and I could set the record straight. I also have a book out, and the book is not based on the movie.
It's actually what I call the real story as opposed to the reel story, and it allows me to fill the cracks in. It's been published by Hyperion, which is Disney, so I've been given a lot of liberty by Disney to go out in public and talk about the real things that did happen that people had questions about. It's wonderful to get their blessing.
IGN Sports: The scenes of the street football game were brutal. Was it that bad in real life? Vince Papale: It was like that, yeah.
Two of the missing things in the movie though were the cops and the ambulance. They were always there as key ingredients. They took a little liberty, of course, with me playing a street game the week I would be playing a NFL game, but where they got that from was when I was playing in the World Football League, I was playing Rough Touch in between my games.
So they tied that one in. But the themes, and the roughness of the play, they were nothing compared to how they were in real life. We got to the point where we really did need to have police on board all the time.
IGN Sports: So after getting slammed into cars, playing special teams in the NFL is nothing. Vince Papale: I said that one time and people started riding me. I said that after playing in the Rough Touch bar leagues, the hits in the NFL are nothing.
They don't even compare. I took some good natured ribbing from my teammates about that article, but it was true. And it certainly prepared me for training camp and for the free agent tryout where I did run that 4.
5 40. Guys at that tryout were trying to take my head off because there was a lot of 1-on-1 stuff going on and guys were trying to rip me apart, but I kept thinking if I could survive the Rough Touch leagues, I could survive anything.
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