Today in Philly Sports History: The Garbage-Picking Field Goal-Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon, 1998

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Before there was Vince Papale--well, before there was Mark Wahlberg playing Vince Papale, anyway--there was Barney Gorman, the Garbage-Picking, Field Goal-Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon. On February 15th, 1998, the Disney Channel premiered the similarly-named TV movie as a late-career vehicle for 80s TV star Tony Danza. The Danz plays the titular garbageman-turned-field goal kicker, making his unexpected pro debut for--who else--the Philadelphia Eagles.

Barney's latent field goal-kicking talents are realized when he kicks a water jug at the dump where the Eagles are thinking of putting their new stadium (ouch), and new Birds coach Gus Rogenheimer notices the NFL-ready trajectory and distance. In typical 90s TV Sports Movie logic, Rogenheimer asks Barney to be the team's placekicker, and he eventually wins the team and fans over by kicking a bunch of game-winning field goals. But stardom goes to Barneys head, and soon he forgets about the garbage-picking roots that he comes from...

I'll spare you the spoiler alerts, in case you're hoping to catch a rerun in between Hannah Montana and Jonas premieres. I'll let the comments from IMDB user Steve-575 hit the high points, though: "Can be summed up in four words: Greatest Movie Ever Made." (Although, to be fair, the movie's average user rating of 4.4/10 does belie that analysis somewhat). Look out for Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie playing a friend of Barney's though, at one point offering the line, "This new Eagles owner must be a good guy."

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