Former Nevada football player makes big screen debut
If you didn’t get the chance to see him play for the Wolf Pack, he’s only a theater near you away.
Talib Wise, a former running back and wide receiver for the University of Nevada, Reno from 2003 to 2004, appeared in his first movie, “The Game Plan,” which was released last month.
“The only thing I had during the movie was a huge smile on my face,” Wise said when he saw the movie the day after its release. “I couldn’t get up during the movie and scream ‘That’s me, that’s me.’ ”
Disney’s “The Game Plan,” which stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, portrays a bachelor professional quarterback who discovers he has an 8-year-old daughter and tries to juggle football and his daughter in the midst of the long-waited championship game.
“It’s been great to be able to be part of something like ‘The Game Plan,’ ” Wise said.
Wise happened to be in the right place at the right time when it came to appearing in his first film. He said one of his teammates informed him about the upcoming movie and the need for football players. Most of the football movies use players from the Arena Football League and approximately 25 appeared in “The Game Plan.”
“You always see different sports movies and question how they get that opportunity,” said Wise, who plays for the New Orleans VooDoo.
“Growing up on the south side of Chicago, never in a million years do you think you’ll be in a movie, especially a sports one,” former Nevada running back and wide receiver Talib Wise said.
Wise spent the last 10 days of October 2006 working out at the College of Holy Cross and at the home of the New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium. Wise earned $5,000 for his role as a defender on the New York Dukes, the rival team of Joe Kingman’s (The Rock) Boston Rebels.
“Basically, we just played football,” Wise said.
Wise smiled when he learned he would be working with The Rock, the former World Wrestling Federation professional wrestler who switched careers to acting.
“It was really good, especially how down-to-earth they are,” Wise said about the well-known actors. “They tried to make it as fun as possible.”
The Rock was grateful to work with the top players from the AFL and said they made the movie a realistic football experience.
“All of the AFL players really worked their butts off every single day, and Mark Ellis and Pat O’Hara were fantastic in coordinating the football scenes and working with our arena league players,” The Rock said in a press release. “I have nothing but glowing things to say about my experience in working with these guys.”
Although The Rock headlined the film, Wise didn’t disappoint his family with his appearance when they went to see the movie over the opening weekend.
“One of my brothers saw the movie and my mom was going to see it,” Wise said. “He liked it. He took his daughters to see it and they enjoyed it.”
Wise played two seasons at Nevada, one for Chris Tormey and his final for Chris Ault, and earned the Versatile Award, given to the player who demonstrates the most versatility.
Wise ran the ball effectively as he rushed for 124 yards against Fresno State in his top running game. His best receiving game came against Hawaii when he caught 10 passes for 104 yards.
Ault couldn’t resist a smile when he learned Wise appeared in the movie. The Hall of Fame coach said Wise was a hard-working athlete and hopes he can battle back into the NFL system after he was cut by the Chicago Bears in 2005.
“He’s trying to work his way up,” said Ault, who took over the program in 2004 for the third time in his career. “He’s a good all-around athlete.”
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 12:48 am and is filed under Football, Sports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
