50 Fun Facts About The Longest Yard

Which comedian plays disgraced quarterback Paul Crewe in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard?

Adam Sandler scored what was then the biggest opening of his career with the film, which took $47.6 million in its first weekend.

Which star of the 1974 original returns in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard as coach Nate Scarborough?

Burt Reynolds led the inmates as Paul Crewe in 1974, then came back three decades later to coach the man who inherited his role.

Which stand-up star plays the inmate who helps Paul Crewe recruit his team in the 2005 Longest Yard?

Chris Rock won a BET Comedy Award for the part, a well-connected inmate who befriends Crewe and rounds up players for him.

What name do the inmates give their football team in The Longest Yard, also the title of the 2001 British remake?

Mean Machine was also the title the 1974 film itself carried in British cinemas, decades before a remake set in an English prison borrowed it.

Which Friends star makes an uncredited appearance as Paul Crewe's girlfriend Lena in the 2005 Longest Yard?

Courteney Cox took the cameo the year after Friends ended, and her character's car is the one Crewe wrecks on his way to a prison sentence.

Which chart-topping rapper plays the speedy running back Earl Megget in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard?

Nelly's Megget is the first of Deacon Moss's circle to join, and the guards' taunting of him is what finally brings the others onto the team.

The inmate Cheeseburger Eddy in the 2005 Longest Yard is known for smuggling in food from which chain?

McDonald's is where Eddy's contraband comes from, and when he is not dealing burgers he lines up at tight end for the inmates.

Why is Paul Crewe crossing the field when the warden orders him shot in The Longest Yard?

Retrieving the game ball is all he is doing, and he carries it back to hand to the beaten warden as a parting gift.

Which inmate, Paul Crewe's closest ally in prison, is killed by a booby trap meant for Crewe in The Longest Yard?

Caretaker dies in both the 1974 and 2005 films, and the uniforms he arranged before his death fire up the team on the day of the match.

After the final whistle of the 2005 Longest Yard, two inmates celebrate by drenching the warden with what?

Gatorade is poured over him by Deacon and Battle, moments after Crewe hands the beaten warden the football.

Which scandal ended Paul Crewe's career as an NFL quarterback before the events of The Longest Yard?

Point shaving ties Crewe to his reported inspiration, Jack Molinas, an NBA All-Star banned in the 1950s for betting on his own team's games.

In the 2005 Longest Yard, a football-mad warden has Paul Crewe transferred from California to a prison in which state?

Texas is where the warden runs his guards' team and eyes a run for governor, so a famous inmate quarterback is worth pulling strings for.

Inmate coach Nate Scarborough in the 2005 Longest Yard is a former winner of which college football award?

Heisman Trophy winner is how the remake bills him, while the 1974 film's Nate is a former pro who scores a touchdown on a bad knee.

In the 2005 Longest Yard, the inmates secretly swap guard Engelhardt's steroids for which substance?

Estrogen is the inmates' answer to the guards flooding their practice field, one of several dirty tricks the two sides trade before kickoff.

Which former NFL player, later a Brooklyn Nine-Nine star, plays Cheeseburger Eddy in the 2005 Longest Yard?

Terry Crews auditioned for a different part, but the film's leading man reshaped a role for him after seeing White Chicks.

Which former Wimbledon midfielder stars as a jailed ex-England captain in the 2001 British remake of The Longest Yard?

Vinnie Jones plays a banned star who coaches fellow inmates against the warders, with soccer replacing the gridiron game.

Which football-obsessed prison warden pressures Paul Crewe into building an inmate team in The Longest Yard?

Rudolph Hazen runs a semi-pro team of guards in the 1974 film and wants a title badly enough to blackmail his most famous inmate.

Which item in Paul Crewe's cell is rigged with a deadly explosive in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard?

A radio replaces the booby trap of the 1974 film, where a light bulb filled with flammable fluid was set to go off at the flick of a switch.

Which play seals the inmates' narrow victory over the guards at the end of the 2005 Longest Yard?

A two-point conversion wins it by the slimmest margin, whereas the 1974 inmates clinch their 36-35 victory with a touchdown as time runs out.

At halftime of the big game in The Longest Yard, the warden threatens Paul Crewe with what unless he loses?

A murder charge is the threat: the warden offers to name Crewe as an accomplice in his friend's killing unless the inmates lose heavily.

Which captain of the guards refuses the warden's order to shoot Paul Crewe at the end of The Longest Yard?

Knauer hands the rifle back in the 1974 film out of respect for the man who beat him, and his 2005 counterpart vows to clear Crewe's name.

Paul Crewe's drunken police chase in the 2005 Longest Yard is in his girlfriend's car of which luxury make?

Bentley replaced the Citroën SM of the 1974 film, a Maserati-engined French grand tourer that Crewe takes without asking.

The elderly inmate Pop in the 1974 Longest Yard has spent 30 years inside for doing what to a guard?

Punching him cost Pop three decades because that guard rose to be warden, yet Pop's verdict that it was worth it sends Crewe back onto the field.

Paul Crewe loses a one-on-one contest in which sport to Deacon Moss while recruiting in the 2005 Longest Yard?

Basketball goes badly for Crewe, but his refusal to quit wins over Earl Megget, and members of rap group D12 play the other convicts on court.

In the 2005 Longest Yard, the inmates' surprise uniforms come from a cousin working at which sportswear brand?

Reebok kit arrives through a late teammate's family contact, whereas the 1974 inmates wear professional uniforms stolen from the guards.

Which future US president, then a Southern governor, backed the 1974 Longest Yard shoot inside a working prison?

Jimmy Carter's cooperation earned a thank-you in the end credits, after a riot at an Oklahoma penitentiary forced the production to find a new prison in Georgia.

Albert S. Ruddy, who wrote the story for the 1974 Longest Yard, had just produced which Best Picture winner?

The Godfather made him an Oscar winner; he had earlier co-created the sitcom Hogan's Heroes and would win again for Million Dollar Baby.

The 1974 Longest Yard beat The Front Page to the best musical or comedy film prize at which awards ceremony?

Golden Globes voters also nominated its leading man, its villainous warden and a newcomer in the cast, but only the film itself won.

Which DreamWorks animated film opened in US cinemas on the same day as the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard?

Madagascar shared the weekend, and the prison comedy's debut was then the second biggest ever for a film that failed to open at number one.

Which Dallas Cowboys great nicknamed the Playmaker plays inmate leader Deacon Moss in the 2005 Longest Yard?

Michael Irvin's character joins the team only after seeing guards abuse a fellow inmate; the real receiver entered the Hall of Fame two years later.

Which wrestler, famous for a long unbeaten streak in WCW, plays the inmate Battle in the 2005 Longest Yard?

Bill Goldberg had been on an NFL roster himself, signing with the Atlanta Falcons years before wrestling made him famous.

Which Saturday Night Live alumnus leads the inmates' cheerleading squad as Ms. Tucker in the 2005 Longest Yard?

Tracy Morgan had left the sketch show two years earlier, and a year after the film he began the sitcom role that earned him an Emmy nomination.

Which Oscar winner and Young Frankenstein star plays Lynette Grey in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard?

Cloris Leachman won her Oscar for The Last Picture Show and went on to collect nine Emmys across her television career.

Which Green Acres star plays the ruthless prison warden in the 1974 film The Longest Yard?

Eddie Albert was fresh from an Oscar nomination for The Heartbreak Kid when he swapped his sitcom farmer for a blackmailing villain.

Which actor, Oscar-nominated as the farmer in Babe, plays the scheming warden in the 2005 Longest Yard?

James Cromwell became a vegan while playing that farmer, a long way from the warden who has Crewe locked in a hot box.

Which towering actor, later the Bond villain Jaws, plays the inmate Samson in the 1974 film The Longest Yard?

Richard Kiel plays a former professional weightlifter here, three years before The Spy Who Loved Me made him a rare Bond henchman to return for a second film.

Which Deuce Bigalow star turns up as the inmate Punky in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard?

Rob Schneider repeats the shouted words of encouragement he first delivered in The Waterboy, a running gag across several of the leading man's comedies.

Which Hollywood studio released both the 1974 Longest Yard and its 2005 remake in American cinemas?

Paramount handled the remake at home while Sony's Columbia label released it in other countries.

Paul Crewe's drunken joyride at the start of the 2005 Longest Yard tears through which California city?

San Diego is where the joyride ends in a crash, costing Crewe his probation and earning him three years in prison.

The prison scenes of the 2005 Longest Yard were filmed mainly at the state penitentiary of which US state?

New Mexico's penitentiary near Santa Fe stood in for the film's prison, a site that had seen one of America's most violent prison riots in 1980.

Which director of The Dirty Dozen and Kiss Me Deadly made the 1974 film The Longest Yard?

Robert Aldrich doubted his own touch for comedy, by his star's account, so he shot each scene as written and then allowed a looser, clowning take.

Which director of Tommy Boy and 50 First Dates made the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard?

Peter Segal was directing the same leading man for the third time, a partnership that began with Anger Management two years earlier.

The 1974 Longest Yard earned its only Academy Award nomination in which category?

Best Film Editing was the nod, for Michael Luciano, who lost the Oscar to The Towering Inferno but won the film editors' own award.

Which Broadway star plays Miss Toot, the warden's amorous secretary, in the 1974 film The Longest Yard?

Bernadette Peters opened on Broadway in Mack and Mabel the same year, and went on to win two Tony Awards.

Which Green Bay Packers great from Vince Lombardi's title teams plays the guard Bogdanski in the 1974 Longest Yard?

Ray Nitschke anchored the defense that won the first two Super Bowls, and on screen his character takes two full-force throws below the belt.

Michael Conrad, coach Nate Scarboro in the 1974 Longest Yard, later won two Emmys on which police drama?

Hill Street Blues cast him as Sergeant Phil Esterhaus, whose roll-call briefing opened every episode until his death during the fourth season.

Which longtime ESPN anchor nicknamed Boomer calls the prison game as himself in the 2005 Longest Yard?

Chris Berman had already played himself in football films such as Necessary Roughness and The Program before taking the microphone here.

Which six-time WWF champion made his film debut as Guard Dunham in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard?

Steve Austin, better known as Stone Cold, had won the Royal Rumble three times before taking this first film role.

Which Oklahoma Sooners legend and former Seattle Seahawks linebacker plays Guard Garner in the 2005 Longest Yard?

Brian Bosworth, nicknamed the Boz, was twice named college football's top linebacker but lasted only three NFL seasons before turning to acting.

Which actor, later FBI agent Mahone in Prison Break, plays the guards' captain in the 2005 Longest Yard?

William Fichtner's captain also lines up at quarterback for the guards, and the actor joined Prison Break the following year.