Two years after the New Orleans Saints won Super Bowl XLIV, head coach Sean Payton is involved in the Bountygate scandal and suspended from the NFL for one year. While he's awaiting the results of his appeal, he returns to his hometown to reconnect with his 12-year-old son Connor.
Not knowing how long he'll stay, Sean checks into a local hotel for 5 days and heads to his old middle-school Liberty ChristianinArgyle, Texas. Showing up to the football team's game unannounced, his ex-wife Beth and her new husband Jaime call him over.
Connor wonders why his father has come and Sean explains he just wants to get to know him. Beth and Jaime invite him to their barbecue the next afternoon. Sean introduces himself to coach Jay. At the BBQ, Connor's teammate in the Argyle Warriors friends are friendly, but he remains distant.
Watching the practices, Sean occasionally shouts out suggestions to Connor and others take notice. Known around town, other parents encourage him to help out with their kids as he sees fit. At the next game as he sees a way to help the team, Sean pops down and gives advice to Coach Troy, securing the team's first touchdown of the season.
Troy hunts down Sean that evening, convincing him to join them as the team's offensive coordinator. At the first game after the kids have the new playbook it's obvious they don't get it, so he shows them using nacho ingredients as props. Soon, the Warriors are winning every game.
However, facing the state champs the Porcupines, the Warriors are intimidated. The aggressive, much larger players cream them. Although dejected, they are reminded that they wouldn't have to play them again until the final. They go on to win all of their following matches, their semi-final is won in heavy rain as the kids projectile vomit, caused by natural energy wraps provided by Jaime.
In the final, Sean runs their two best players in both offense and defense in the first half, making them exhausted, but keeping the lead. Finally, in the last quarter, he puts the two benched defensive players back in and has their kicker Harlan, who hasn't scored one all season, to go for the tie. He misses, but the team rejoices as he knocks out the scoreboard.
Heading back to New Orleans, before Sean leaves he organises Connor's future visit to see him and the team. Back in his office, Sean proudly places the second-place middle school trophy next to his Super Bowl one as a janitor named Lionel enters his office.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 21% of 28 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4/10.[7]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 23 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[8]
