Dartmouth's Brian Mann Serves as Double for Adam Sandler in "The Longest Yard"

Dartmouth's Brian Mann Serves as Double for Adam Sandler in "The Longest Yard"

May 23, 2005

HANOVER, N.H. -- In the upcoming re-make of the 1974 comedy classic "The Longest Yard," former Dartmouth quarterback Brian Mann '02 serves as a stand-in for Adam Sandler. The film, which also stars comedian Chris Rock and Burt Reynolds, opens nationally on May 27.

Mann, currently a backup quarterback with the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League, had a chance to audition for the role last summer. The Avengers are the only professional team in Los Angeles and since college players would lose their eligibility and Los Angeles' starting quarterback is left-handed, Mann was next in line to try out. Since his body type and looks are close enough to Sandler's, the Big Green alumnus got the job.

The movie was filmed last summer at an abandoned prison near Santa Fe, New Mexico, and at El Camino Junior College in California. The film also stars James Cromwell and rapper Nelly and features a veritable who's-who of professional athletes including three-time Super Bowl winner and former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin. Linebacker Bill Romanowski, who won Super Bowls with four different teams, and former NFL players Brian Bosworth and Terry Alan Crews are also included as are world champion wrestlers Bill Goldberg, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kevin Nash, along with K-1 kickboxing champion Bob Sapp.

Sandler, who grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire, plays former NFL pro Paul Crewe in the film. When his character is sent to prison, he is forced by the warden to transform a group of inmates into a football team that will take on the prison guards. With assistance from Nate Scarborough, played by Reynolds, and Caretaker, played by Rock, Crewe offers the convicts an opportunity to exact revenge on the guards in a showdown where anything goes.

In order to make the football action realistic, Mann threw more than half of the passes in the film, but he also had the unenviable task of having to endure bone-crushing hits from Romanowski and Bosworth. Sandler worked with former NFL quarterback Sean Salisbury on throwing and moving like a quarterback and well-known sports coordinator Mark Ellis, who had previously worked on "Friday Night Lights" and "Any Given Sunday," was hired to make the football scenes as authentic as possible.

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