[2] George Plimpton, a writer for Sports Illustrated, has been indulging in a variety of Walter Mitty-like whims and stunts, trying his hand at being a professional athlete (such as briefly pitching in an exhibition game against All-Star baseball players or boxing a round with Sugar Ray Robinson), then writing about the experience.

With a relatively meaningless pre-season exhibition game scheduled against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Lions' head coach, Joe Schmidt, decides to let George play quarterback for one series of downs.

Defensive tackle Alex Karras was serving a suspension from pro-football in 1963 for gambling and was not at the training camp.

The film depicts five plays when Plimpton is permitted to quarterback the Lions in a fictitious pre-season game with the St. Louis Cardinals.

"Alda's version was always angry or consternated, like a character in a Woody Allen film, while my dad, though he certainly faced hurdles as an amateur in the world of the professional, bore his humiliations with a comic lightness and charm — much of which emanated from that befuddled, self-deprecating professor's voice.