[6.5/10] Look, having the group from The League go to Cowboys training camp should be complete and total catnip for a Cowboys fan like me. The problem is what it always is on this show, and really any other that tries to do the same sort of thing -- most athletes are just not good actors. They’re trying! And the show tries to hide their deficiencies. But it is what it is.
We get a nice presaging of Jason Witten’s underwhelming turn as an announcer. We get a bit with Felix Jones that tries to save his flat delivery with editing (and the Rodney/Felix thing is worth a laugh). Theo Ratliff gets to just be a generic gruff football player. And a (then newly signed, I think) Brandon Carr gets to just react to Taco’s antics. Whatever thrill comes from seeing recognizable players on the show is mitigated by the fact that they don’t really blend in well into the fabric of the show.
The other side of the coin is that, holy cow, ol’ mush-mouthed Jerry Jones pulls it off better than pretty much any other person from the world of sports to guest star on The League short of maybe Matthew Berry. I’m sure ol’ Jerruh is too rich to want to waste time being on sitcoms, but he does a surprisingly great job meshing with the tone and rhythm of the show. (And if I’m not mistaken, it’s his grandkids tossing footballs to the group which is, I bet, how this whole thing ended up happening.)
The actual antics of the group aren’t much to write home about. Jenny’s masturbatory fantasy feels cheesy and male gaze-y despite being a woman’s fantasy. The group misbehaving at training camp was super broad and cornball. And everyone showing up in the delivery room for the birth of Jenny and Kevin’s child was generic sitcom humor. Really the only bits I liked were Taco’s cowboy telegram service letting him stumble onto the DallasCowboys.com domain, and the doctor in the delivery room (the foul-mouthed congressman from Veep) chastising the group not just for their behavior, but for their struggling over basic fantasy football drafting decisions, and the back and forth with ol’ Jerral.
Overall, you’d never expect me to say this as a Cowboys fan, but I wish this had more Jerry Jones. A (almost literally) star-studded premiere, but one that doesn't necessarily portend great things for the season ahead.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2019-01-05T18:25:29Z
[6.5/10] Look, having the group from The League go to Cowboys training camp should be complete and total catnip for a Cowboys fan like me. The problem is what it always is on this show, and really any other that tries to do the same sort of thing -- most athletes are just not good actors. They’re trying! And the show tries to hide their deficiencies. But it is what it is.
We get a nice presaging of Jason Witten’s underwhelming turn as an announcer. We get a bit with Felix Jones that tries to save his flat delivery with editing (and the Rodney/Felix thing is worth a laugh). Theo Ratliff gets to just be a generic gruff football player. And a (then newly signed, I think) Brandon Carr gets to just react to Taco’s antics. Whatever thrill comes from seeing recognizable players on the show is mitigated by the fact that they don’t really blend in well into the fabric of the show.
The other side of the coin is that, holy cow, ol’ mush-mouthed Jerry Jones pulls it off better than pretty much any other person from the world of sports to guest star on The League short of maybe Matthew Berry. I’m sure ol’ Jerruh is too rich to want to waste time being on sitcoms, but he does a surprisingly great job meshing with the tone and rhythm of the show. (And if I’m not mistaken, it’s his grandkids tossing footballs to the group which is, I bet, how this whole thing ended up happening.)
The actual antics of the group aren’t much to write home about. Jenny’s masturbatory fantasy feels cheesy and male gaze-y despite being a woman’s fantasy. The group misbehaving at training camp was super broad and cornball. And everyone showing up in the delivery room for the birth of Jenny and Kevin’s child was generic sitcom humor. Really the only bits I liked were Taco’s cowboy telegram service letting him stumble onto the DallasCowboys.com domain, and the doctor in the delivery room (the foul-mouthed congressman from Veep) chastising the group not just for their behavior, but for their struggling over basic fantasy football drafting decisions, and the back and forth with ol’ Jerral.
Overall, you’d never expect me to say this as a Cowboys fan, but I wish this had more Jerry Jones. A (almost literally) star-studded premiere, but one that doesn't necessarily portend great things for the season ahead.