The Last Pick Who Refused to Be Last
Every year, the NFL draft ends the same way: with a player nobody remembers, the final selection, a young man the league dubs “Mr. Irrelevant.” Most of them disappear. John Tuggle did not. Drafted 335th overall by the New York Giants in 1983, Tuggle became the first last pick in history to make the roster of the team that drafted him, then played all 16 games, was voted the Giants’ Special Teams Player of the Year, and left an impression that outlived his short life. Paramount Pictures brings his story to the screen this Christmas Day in Mr. Irrelevant, and the first trailer suggests it will be one of the season’s great crowd-pleasers.
David Corenswet, fresh off his celebrated turn as Superman, plays Tuggle with the same physical conviction and open heart he brought to the cape. The trailer opens on him in the orange Mr. Irrelevant jersey, a visual gag that turns poignant fast. Around him: Michael Shannon as a young Bill Parcells, in his very first year as head coach, gruff and brilliant; Isabel May as the love of Tuggle’s life; David Krumholtz as Julius “Whitey” Horai. The film, directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies, Long Shot) from a script by Nick Santora, follows Tuggle’s fight to stick, his new love, and the illness that stole the rest. Tuggle died of cancer on August 30, 1986. He was 25.
A Director Who Understands This Story in His Bones
If you are going to hand a studio a story about illness, optimism, and an ending nobody wanted, you could do far worse than Jonathan Levine. He made 50/50, one of the rare cancer films that found the humor inside the heartbreak without cheapening either. Corenswet has spoken about Tuggle as a man defined by optimism who suddenly faced a fight he could not win, and whether grace and humor could still make something of it. That is Levine territory. The film shot in Australia, with Melbourne and Geelong standing in for NFL stadiums, creating hundreds of jobs and pouring millions into the local economy. Production ran through 2025, and the first trailer, released September 13, has the steady, confident rhythm of a studio that knows it has something.
Here is a detail worth knowing: it was Parcells’ first year as head coach, and the Giants went 3-12-1. A disaster season. Tuggle stepped in at fullback when Rob Carpenter went down. The stat line was modest, 17 carries, 49 yards, a touchdown, a handful of catches. But Parcells later said he learned more from Tuggle than from any other player he ever coached. When the Giants won their first Super Bowl the following year, they wore Tuggle’s No. 38 on their helmets. That is the kind of detail a screenwriter could not invent, and a film should not need to.
Why Christmas Day Belongs to the Underdogs
Corenswet and May have already begun the press tour, walking the MTV Video Music Awards carpet together in late September as presenters, and the chemistry the studio is selling between the leads plays beautifully in the trailer. Paramount’s confidence is real: Christmas Day is the year’s most contested release corridor, and the studio is planting its flag there. Michael Shannon as Parcells looks like casting from central, the kind of role Shannon was born for, all gravel and gravity. And for Corenswet, this is the movie that answers the question every young star faces after a superhero debut: can he hold a screen as a man instead of a myth?
The Rarest Thing in Sports Movies: Truth
ESPN once told Tuggle’s story in a 30 for 30 short called “The Irrelevant Giant.” This film is the full canvas. Sports movies live or die on whether you believe the person inside the jersey, and everything about Mr. Irrelevant, the casting, the director, the timing, suggests belief will not be a problem. Christmas is when families go to the movies together, and this is the rare film that earns the word inspiring. You will laugh. You will cheer. You will probably cry a little, and you will not mind. New Yorkers celebrating the season can find plenty more to love in this roundup of October events in the city, but come December 25, the underdog story of John Tuggle will be waiting. For a city that knows its icons, from fashion royalty at the Vanderbilt Seewald NYFW debut at Grand Central to its sporting legends, Tuggle’s tale belongs in the pantheon.
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