Paramount Pictures, which created the remake of the “The Longest Yard” in 2004, has moved to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the family of a former professional football player who appeared in the movie as an extra during the football scenes.
The plaintiff in the case, Darryl Hammond, played more than a decade in the Arena Football League (AFL). In 2017 he died at the age of 49 after complications from ALS. His family donated his brain to Boston University’s CTW Center and Program. An autopsy reportedly revealed that his brain exhibited Stage 3 CTE. Two years later, his family sued the AFL, Paramount and Walt Disney Pictures.
Specifically, they claimed that Hammond suffered more than 200 concussions during his career in the AFL as well as participating as an extra in “The Longest Yard” and “Invincible,” a football movie produced by Disney. Hammond was inducted into the Arena Football League Hall of Fame in 2013. As for the movies, his family claimed that the studio required multiple takes of violent scenes.
Paramount claimed in an eight-page Los Angeles Superior Court filing that performing realistic football scenes in a movie is not the same as participating in a professional football game.
“Scripted and choreographed movie football scenes take place in a controlled environment, where no actual football game is played,” the defense attorneys wrote. “There was no ‘real’ football game in The Longest Yard’s fictional football game.”
