Twenty years after Cameron Crowe’s Jerry Maguire redefined Tom Cruise’s career and earned Cuba Gooding, Jr. an Academy Award for best supporting actor, the film has inspired a whole different kind of creativity this week.
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NFL Films have produced a pair of mockumentaries centering on Rod Tidwell and Frank Cushman — the football players portrayed by Gooding and Jerry O’Connell in the film.
The League’s love affair with Jerry Maguire is nothing new; in 2016, Good Morning Football named Tidwell as one of the top 5 Hollywood wide receivers of all time.
In the film, Cruise’s titular agent, Jerry Maguire, has an attack of conscience is fired from his job after realizing that the way sports agents interact with their clients tends to be crass and exploitative. The only two clients he’s able to keep are Tidwell — a superstar veteran who had a reputation as a problem in the locker room — and Cushman, a hot young prospect.
These custom-made, in-universe documentaries are becoming more common as a promotional tool: Creed had an ESPN 30 For 30 documentary about Adonis Creed’s opponent, and in addition to a big chunk of it playing within the movie, ESPN ran elements of it on their social channels around the film’s release.
Members of the Jerry Maguire cast, including comedian and radio host Jay Mohr, former child star Jonathan Lipnicki, and MAD TV standout Aries Spears joined football names like Terrell Owens, Kurt Warner, and Ray Lewis, Jr., come together to discuss Rod Tidwell. Shaquille O’Neal, Vanilla Ice, and Coolio bring some pop culture cache to it.
Jerry O’Connell himself appears in the Frank Cushman documentary, along with his onscreen father Beau Bridges, LaDainian Tomlinson, Matt Ryan, and plenty of sports figures.
What’s arguably the most interesting is that both of the stars are depicted as having had unnaturally short careers post-Jerry Maguire, with Tidwell walking away from a lucrative contract to pursue other happiness and Cushman’s career ended by an unfortunate losing battle with athlete’s foot.
