Later in the year, he joined the National Football League's Chicago Bears for a barnstorming tour; between games in December, agent C. C. Pyle showed off a movie check worth $300,000 as a publicity stunt.

[4] The next day, The New York Times reported the Arrow Production Company had picked up the check, though Grange revealed in his 1953 autobiography that he really only received $5,000 per week for the film.

[8] The game, as were all football scenes, were filmed at Pomona College; due to the California summer heat and the movie taking place in the Midwest during autumn, extras as appropriately-dressed fans were not readily available.

Pyle proposed promoting the climax as a genuine exhibition game with fans dressed in fall attire being granted free admission; as a result, 15,000 spectators attended the filming.

[9] In his autobiography, Grange wrote he "received several congratulatory wires from the top studio brass telling me how pleased they were with my work and that in their opinion the film was one of the best they had ever produced."

After the film was released, FBO head Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. attempted to convince Grange to retire from football and became a full-time actor for the studio, but he declined.