Final film of Jack Warden.

The Washington team is loosely based on the 1987 replacement Washington Redskins, who won all three of their "replacement" games. The "real" Redskins returned for Week 7 through to the Super Bowl, which they also won. After winning the Super Bowl, the franchise rarely if ever gave the replacement players any credit for the team's success. When the Redskins players received their Super Bowl rings, none of the replacement players received a ring even though it was said that had they not won their games, the team may not have made the playoffs let alone win the Super Bowl. However, after 30 years, it was announced in March 2018 that the Redskins are finally going to recognize the replacement players' contribution and finally give them their Super Bowl rings.

The reason everyone refers to Shane Falco's meltdown in the 1996 Sugar Bowl is because there was no game in 1996. This made it easy to avoid having issues with a real player or team. The Sugar Bowl after the 1995 season was played on 12/31/95 (V-Tech def. Texas) and after the 1996 season on 1/2/97 (Florida def. Florida State).

Keanu Reeves gained 23 pounds for his role as quarterback Shane Falco.

During filming, Keanu Reeves was offered a tryout with the Baltimore Ravens. The Baltimore Ravens would eventually go on to win Super Bowl XXXV less than 6 months after the film's release.

Continuity

One scene shows Bateman making a big hit on the field, and then moves to the coach's reaction. Bateman is standing behind the coach cheering his own play.

Just after Falco kisses Annabelle for the first time, Falco scores a touchdown. He's hit by two defensive players as he rolls into the end zone for the score. Next, John Madden describes the replay. When Falco's touchdown is replayed on the Madden-vision, he's hit by one defensive player and rolls into the end zone differently.

Bateman's broken nose becomes unbroken in a number of shots.

When Falco's truck is being turned on its side for the second time by the striking players, the mirrors on his truck go from broken to intact to broken again.

During the final game, after the "kick ass" play, the referee has difficulty calculating the number of penalty yards the Sentinels should be assessed. It then goes to a shot of Falco laughing at the ref; behind Falco, the same ref can be seen, standing motionless, while he still can heard calling the penalty.



Factual errors

During Falco's first play in the Dallas game ("kick ass on one"), the ref calls multiple unnecessary roughness calls and then wonders how many penalty yards to give. In pro football, only one penalty may be accepted per play, so it wouldn't matter how many people got caught, only one 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty would be enforced.

During an extra point attempt, the clock is running. In real football, the clock is stopped during extra point attempts.

During a kickoff sequence the announcers become excited that the receiving team must get out of bounds to stop the clock. This is not true. The clock will stop automatically after any kick or change of possession.

At the end of the first game with seconds left, the offensive team hands off the ball to the running back, and Bateman strips him of the ball. In any professional football game, the QB would simply take a knee to run out the clock and end the game.

Towards the end of the second game when the team is attempting an onside kick, Shane Falco is on the field and actually tackles Danny Bateman to prevent the clock from expiring. Quarterbacks very rarely, if ever, participate in kick-offs. They usually are resting and preparing for the next offensive series. During the play, John Madden says, "They have to recover the kick and then call timeout". In the NFL, the clock automatically stops after all kickoffs, so no timeout would be needed to stop the clock.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

While it was the Players' Union that went on strike and the cheerleaders are not part of the union, they would not need to be rehired. However, except for a handful, the cheerleaders refused to cross the picket line; thus, requiring Annabelle to have try-outs.

Towards the beginning, when Falco first arrives at practice, he does a practice throw. Player #34 starts running to catch the ball, but the ball goes to #81 instead. Both players can be seen starting to run; he may have intentionally gone for the deeper player.

The use of stickum was banned by the NFL in 1981. Franklin questions McGinty giving it to him, asking, "Isn't this illegal?"

Any differences between the events of the film and the 1987 NFL strike (on which the film is loosely based) are not goofs since the Sentinels and the league they play in are fictional. It's not intended to be an accurate retelling of actual events.



Revealing mistakes

After the Detroit game, the cars on the highway are going backwards as if the film is being played in reverse.

At about the 9 minute mark the shot is a pan of the harbor where Falco lives and works. A large sailing ship is shown going backwards.

Just before "I will survive" in The End Zone bar, the camera pans across a highway in DC, but the shot is played in reverse. As it pans left, all the cars can be seen moving backwards down the highway.

When Coach writes "FEAR" on the chalkboard, it can be seen that the same word had been written and erased behind it (from a previous shot).

In the bar with Annabelle, Shane walks in front of a mirror, but his reflection is not shown.



Plot holes

When the players went on strike, they said there were four games left, which would make it November/December. In Washington, the weather would be autumn/winter, yet the exterior shots, short sleeve casual shorts, shorts etc., would indicate much warmer summer/early fall weather.



Character error

When Falco comes out of the tunnel prior to the start of the second half in the Dallas game, Coach McGinty looks up at the replay screen and seems surprised to see Falco in uniform. Since Coach McGinty had just told Falco to "suit up" in the locker room a few minutes before, he would have expected Falco to come out for the second half.