Sports Analogies Hidden In Classic Movies – Volume 101: “Johnny Be Good”

• Today’s Movie: Johnny Be Good
• Year of Release: 1988
• Stars: Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr., Paul Gleason
• Director: Bud Smith

This movie is not on my list of essential films.

NOTE: This installment of Sports Analogies Hidden In Classic Movies is being done as part of something called the The Third So Bad It’s Good Blog-A-Thon hosted by Taking Up Room. I’ve had the privilege of participating in all three of these events, and for this one, I’ve got an extra-special not-so-hidden sports analogy from an actual sports movie.

You can see all the contributors to this blog-a-thon here:

• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Three

The Story:

Johnny Be Good centers on Ashcroft High School’s “star” quarterback Johnny Walker (played by Anthony Michael Hall). Walker is at the top of the “wish list” for several major universities. As a result, Johnny becomes the object of a feeding frenzy; the sharks coming in the form of college recruiters, his best friend and teammate Leo Wiggins (played by Robert Downey, Jr.), his coach Wayne Hisler (played by Paul Gleason), and his girlfriend Georgia Elkans (played by Uma Thurman in her introductory film role).

Various universities with top-flight football programs shower Johnny with promises of everything he could possibly want; everything ranging from free room and board, cars, cash, and a seemingly endless supply of “sex-bomb” women in various states of undress. One school even offers to provide him with male companions on the off chance he isn’t interested in the “fairer sex.”

Johnny’s buddy Leo gets in on the act when one of the school buys him a Jeep in return for getting the prized quarterback to commit to them. Coach Hisler has an under-the-table agreement with a university that will hire him as their head coach if Walker signs their scholarship offer. Finally, Georgia is pressuring him to join her at State University.

Despite the fact he’s a gifted football player, Johnny Walker is still a senior in high school who is quickly overwhelmed by the attention being lavished on him. His ego swells in proportion with the increasing intensity of the “recruiting” and as a result his judgement gets steadily shakier. As the allure of the offers increases, and as the pressure intensifies, the worse Johnny gets.

After one of his recruiting trips, Johnny’s mother (played by Deborah May) admonishes him of his “big head,” his families’ growing irritation with his behavior, and includes a warning not to forget about “what’s important.” By the way, Georgia is also peeved with Johnny. The combination prompts Johnny to visit State University.

Complete with a overly-cocky strut, Johnny approaches State’s Coach Sanders (played by Steve James) inquiring as to what State is willing to offer to “convince” him to sign. Sanders tells him point blank all he will get is a scholarship, and a chance to earn both an education and a shot at the starting quarterback job. Sanders also issues a stern warning about the trouble coming Johnny’s way if he signs with any of the colleges which are showering him with him gifts and money; not the least of which all are major violations of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules. Given all the “glitz” Johnny has already been shown, he rejects Sanders’ advice out of hand.

Later that night, Johnny and Leo end up in a motel room with three girls. The set-up couldn’t be better. Georgia’s father…who hates Johnny and just so happens to be the local sheriff…bursts into the room just in time for the girls falsely to accuse Johnny and Leo of rape. The set-up becomes obvious when Coach Hisler visits them in jail. Hisler has an offer; Johnny can either join him at Piermont University where he is going to be the head coach, or he can go to prison. the college that hired Hisler, so they can both prosper, or he can end up in prison on the fake charges.

Apparently, landing in the slammer is precisely the wake-up call Johnny needed, which sets the stage for National Signing Day. There’s a major press conference being staged at Ashcroft High School’s gym, where it is anticipated Johnny will announce he’s committing to Piermont.

Hisler also has other top prospects at this event, who presumably are all committing to Piermont. But Johnny throws a monkey-wrench into the proceedings when he issues a huge mea culpa about his behavior during this recruitment. Because of the embarrassment and shame he has put on his family, friends and mostly himself, Johnny announces he would rather not play football than so as to avoid all this “special treatment.” Naturally, this instantly creates chaos.

While this decision pleases Johnny’s family and Georgia, Coach Hisler becomes nearly apoplectic and confronts Johnny. Just as the scene is approaching critical mass, an NCAA recruitment investigator named Floyd Gondole (played by Robert Downey, Sr.) takes the stage to announce he’s been watching the recruitment of Johnny Walker since Day One. Gondole rattles off a list of the offending schools and the violations they committed, along with promises there will be harsh punishments.

The Hidden Sports Analogy:

As a sports blogger who is a also a retired “bookie” and who still enjoys wagering on college football, it shouldn’t surprise anybody this isn’t the first time Dubsism has delved into the eternally sleazy nature of college football recruiting. Even the casual sports fan may have heard of the scandal which shut down Southern Methodist University football; in fact Johnny Be Good was made immediately after SMU got the “death penalty” from the NCAA. But many may not know of another investigation which nearly saw one of the “big dogs” in all of the sport land a similar fate.

In 1999, the University of Alabama (the current Dubsism College Football Heavyweight Champion) found itself going deep into the same sewer that SMU did a decade earlier. In this case, the role of prized recruit Johnny Walker was played by a standout defensive tackle named Albert Means at Memphis’ Trezevant High School. In his senior year of 1999, Means was a high school All-American and was named Tennessee’s “Mr. Football.” At 6’4″ and 340 pounds, Means was a rare combination of gargantuan size and remarkable quickness for a mountain-sized man. That combination allowed him to dominate a game from the defensive line, which is why the recruiters were lining up at Means’ door.

Just like in the case of Johnny Walker where several recruiters were in competition, it took no time at all for the cash to come out. But unlike the Walker situation, it came out in the eventual NCAA and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) that Means had no idea that his services were being brokered to several schools.

The story of what actually happened began breaking in January 2001 when former Trezevant assistant coach Milton Kirk started telling tales of the school’s head coach Lynn Lang playing the role of “Coach Hisler” by making it known that access to Means could be had for a price.

Specifically, Kirk spilled the beans on the fact that Lang received $6,000 in cash from a University of Kentucky booster in the presence of Wildcats’ assistant coach Claude Bassett for arranging a recruiting trip to Lexington. Similarly, Kirk said Lang took $4,000 per visit for multiple trips to both the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama. When former University of Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer said he had received cash demands from Lang and was denied a recruiting trip for refusing to pay marked the moment when “smoke” became “fire.” These allegations along several others of a like nature prompted investigations from both the NCAA and the FBI.

As a result of the FBI investigation, a Memphis-area Alabama booster named Logan Young was arrested and faced trial on federal money laundering, racketeering, and conspiracy charges. It was during this trial the full scale of Lang’s the “pay for play” scheme came to light. Once under oath, Lang leveled the following accusations:

Once the details of what happened came out, Alabama released Albert Means from his national letter of intent. He transferred to the University of Memphis where he completed his college career. He was second team All-Conference USA as a senior, but was not drafted by any National Football League. The Houston Texans signed him as an undrafted free agent, but he never played a single snap in the NFL. In other words, all of this happened for a guy who only ever played in seven games for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

The Moral of the Story:

Crime does pay…until you get caught.

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