Fansided

Foxcatcher will have crossover appeal for MMA, NFL fans

By J.P. Scott

Feb. 2, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA: Television actor Steve Carell walks the red carpet prior to the Super Bowl XLVII NFL Honors award show at Mahalia Jackson Theater. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Feb. 2, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA: Television actor Steve Carell walks the red carpet prior to the Super Bowl XLVII NFL Honors award show at Mahalia Jackson Theater. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
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As a wrestler since I was seven years old, I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was to see the trailer for the upcoming film Foxcatcher, due out in November. I’m fairly sure that most people who call themselves wrestlers share my feelings.

Foxcatcher is the story of the events leading up to and including the murder of Olympic wrestling champion Dave Schultz as told through the eyes of Schultz’s brother, Mark. The film stars Channing Tatum as Mark Schultz, Mark Ruffalo as Dave Schultz and Steve Carell as multi-millionare benefactor John du Pont. Carell is already generating some Oscar buzz for his role.

Foxcatcher will no doubt capitalize on the wrestling community. Though a niche sport for the most part, wrestlers and wrestling fans are a loyal bunch who show up in masses for any event related to their sport. The wrestling community is also hungry for a film about their passion — something they haven’t seen hit mainstream pop-culture since the 1985 cult classic Vision Quest.

Wrestling is one of the foundational sports of the modern Olympic games. Now, thanks to a decision by the IOC, the sport will be dropped from the 2020 summer games.
Wrestling is one of the foundational sports of the modern Olympic games. Now, thanks to a decision by the IOC, the sport will be dropped from the 2020 summer games. /

Between the wrestling community showing up for it and Hollywood heavyweights throughout the cast, Foxcatcher will likely be a huge success at the box office. In addition to drawing in the wrestling crowd and fans of Carell, Tatum and Ruffalo, there is some crossover appeal to savvy, hardcore MMA fans as well as some arm-chair NFL historians.

Foxcatcher was actually the name of the grounds owned by duPont on which the Schultz brothers and a host of other wrestlers trained for international competition. It was also the name those wrestlers and duPont  gave their team. One of the members of Team Foxcatcher during the time the film takes place was MMA legend Dan Henderson. Henderson was at the complex training for both the 1996 Olympics as well as the World Cup.

There are all sorts of MMA fans. Many of those fans are familiar with the sport of wrestling and can understand how it translates so effectively to the octagon. Six of the UFC’s eight current mens division champions are what you’d call “wrestlers by trade” — guys who wrestled at the collegiate level. A seventh was an accomplished high school wrestler.

For those who don’t understand or are unaware of the correlation between the skills of the two sports, Foxcatcher promises an in-depth look at the extremely intense and physical nature of the sport of wrestling. This includes some of the training that goes along with being a world class competitor in the sport.

As those training and competition scenes come across the screen, fans of other sports will quickly understand how and why wrestlers are often some of the best all-around athletes on the planet.

Of possible interest to some NFL fans would be the fact that the events depicted in Foxcatcher are actually a precursor to the NFL career of former New England Patriot and Super Bowl champion Stephen Neal. Long before Neal stepped onto the NFL playing fields, he was a 2-time NCAA wrestling champion for Cal-State Bakersfield. He won his second NCAA title by defeating Minnesota’s Brock Lesnar — yes, that Brock Lesnar —  in the finals of the 1999 NCAA Tournament.

Neal would go on to to win both the Pan-American Games and the World Championships in 1999 at 286 pounds. Those accomplishments helped him win the FILA Outstanding Wrestler Award, given to the best wrestler on the planet during each calendar year. Neal trained at the David Schultz Wrestling Club, which was founded by Schultz’s widow after his death as haven for the stranded athletes of Team Foxcatcher. The club lasted for nine years before closing its doors in 2005.

As November draws near, you’ll start to see more trailers and critical praise for Foxcatcher — likely touting it for Oscar-worthy performances by Steve Carell and Channing Tatum. I know there are some people who avoid those slow moving Oscar-caliber dramas for fear of being bored. I can assure you, Foxcatcher will be anything but boring. For many, it will be an inside look at a tragic event that took place in the universe of a sport they are mostly unfamiliar with.

Hopefully, it also serves as an introduction to a sport where the fundamentals of it are a cornerstone to one of the fastest growing sports in the world.