Images courtesy of Iconic Releasing

SIGNING TONY RAYMOND— 3 STARS

The new independent film Signing Tony Raymond aims to show off the nefarious tactics taking place in the college football recruitment process. If you’re a fan of the sport, you’ve heard the expose reports of booster donations, shadowy influencers, and visitation violations that have been the grounds of several scandals in the first quarter of the 21st century. To think of it more from a movie standpoint, little has changed since something like 1993’s cult movie, The Program. Either way, there’s a good chance no one knows the full pervasiveness of questionable or illegal acts happening year after year.

LESSON #1: FOLLOW THE MONEY— The more journalistic examination of this topic is to simply state the classic imperative of “follow the money.” Led by the lucrative revenue of television broadcast rights, college football has become a billion-dollar annual business for the NCAA, raising the value of the top programs also into the billions. The competitiveness—now increased by the transfer portal process and NIL (name, image, and likeness) contracts available for previously unpaid amateur athletes—hasn’t stopped the rule-breaking. Even on the hush-hush side of college football recruitment, the edict of “follow the money” readily applies.

That’s where Signing Tony Raymond takes its leap. Special teams coach Walt McFadden (prolific TV actor Michael Mosley) of the fictional Louisiana University has been given four days, a burner cell phone, and a bag of $50,000 cash to get a signed commitment out of the top defensive high school recruit in the country—Tony Raymond (newcomer Jackie Kay), a generational pass-rushing talent who hails from a podunk Alabama town. Before this, Walt had been working hard and staying honest to shake the stigma of being seen as a nepo hire, being married to the daughter (recent Sweet Magnolias addition Nikki Estridge) of a former LU coaching legend. After challenging head coach Crew Marshall (Charles Esten of TV’s Nashville) for a possible promotion or, at the very least, more to do than running dawn patrol, his superior dangles keeping his job on the results of this high-profile recruitment.

Descending on Tony Raymond’s hometown in the Yellowhammer State, the prized prospect is nowhere to be found. Looking for clues or a hot lead, Walt joins the other interested coaches and sharks in the water, including Rich Akers (fellow Sweet Magnolias ensemble member Brandon Quinn), an ex-LU colleague of Walt’s who bolted for a head coaching position at a rival school. Rich currently has the closest thing to a signed commitment from the stud the sports networks are calling “Country Hurt,” but, until ink hits paper and the deadline passes, plans can change, deals can be sweetened, and anything can happen.

From this start, the chase that is Signing Tony Raymond can go one of two directions. Our “one honest guy” protagonist could take the high road and demonstrate all the positive principles that everyone else is lacking, or it could show a good man poisoned by the underhanded measures it takes to get the proverbial job done. Oddly enough, writer-director Glen Owen tries both, and the selective tonal shifts in humor, drama, honesty, and dishonesty are all over the place like field goals being kicked on a gusty day.

LESSON #2: THE SATIRICAL SIDE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL RECRUITING— Representing the hammy side are the first four people Walt meets in town. The travelling coach encounters Eugene Ledford (future NFL Hall-of-Famer Marshawn Lynch), a former local high school record holder turned laborer, Tony’s incarcerated biological father Dale (former NFL flash-in-the-pan Brian Bozworth), his dirt-biker redneck uncle Ronnie (twitchy TV actor Brad Carter), and, finally, Tony’s sauced and saucy mother Sandy (Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino). Whether they seek a quick buck, a bigger piece of the future pie, or a shortened prison sentence, each carries the first impression of being out for themselves and completely adept at exploiting Walt’s naivety and desperation to fleece him. The R-rated hijinks that ensue play to the satirical viewpoint of college football recruiting.

LESSON #3: THE SERIOUS SIDE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL RECRUITING— As Wally steps deeper and deeper into the muck of bad decisions and financial schemes, his morals sober up and re-emerge to stand taller than his mistakes. The person who takes notice of Walt’s honesty through the hustle is Tony Raymond’s stepfather, Otis Henderson, played by an immensely overqualified Rob Morgan of Mudbound and Don’t Look Up. When he’s done testing Walt, Otis reveals the true hardships of the family that make this college commitment a vital and difficult venture, and Walt responds to them kindly by being present, genuine, and attentive to their needs instead of his own. Furthermore, the title character himself is stashed away—unseen like the shark in Jaws for most of the picture—creating a little aura about what the real prize is like and what’s really at stake.

At this point, Signing Tony Raymond puts most of the shenanigans away to weave a fair and forthright conclusion. That aim from Glen Owen is admirable. Even so, the number of surly developments that came before the arrival of a resized heart takes away from the righteousness the film feels it earns by the on-camera and behind-the-camera participation of ex-pros and merely presenting this crooked topic with exclamation marks and finger-pointing. The film relishes a little too frivolously on the supposed exaggerated fun to be had with all the misdeeds. Clever comeuppance is not the same as legitimate consequences, and that’s where the stiff reality of real-life outside the dramedy movie crashes the party. Because Signing Tony Raymond hops back and forth between the sordid and the sincere without full potency for one or the other, the cinematic takedown of college football recruitment practices is half-strength, at best.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1367)