FXX’s “The League” often invites real NFL stars to play themselves, although the one guest star producers really wanted this year was never going to happen.
“We tried pretty hard,” showrunner Jeff Schaffer said of his attempt to get Tom Brady for his Deflategate episode this season, which is now in the can. “He’s a little bit occupied right now.”
Brady is currently suspended for four games due to his alleged participation in under-inflating footballs for his New England Patriots offense. In theory, an appeal may reduce that multi-week ban. Should that happen, Schaffer (pictured above, left) and his cast are prepared.
“We have shot alts,” he said at Friday’s Television Critics Association (TCA) Summer Press Tour panel. “Let’s put it that way.”
While they didn’t land Brady, “The League” managed to book Marshawn Lynch — whose Seattle Seahawks lost to Brady’s Patriots this past Super Bowl — for another guest spot this season. Lynch previously appeared in a 2014 episode of “The League.”
On Lynch’s famous refusal to speak with the media, cast member Paul Scheer offered the following inside joke for TV critics and reporters in the Beverly Hilton ballroom: “His TCA panel would be really difficult.”
This coming season, the running back spoofs his NFL coach’s controversial decision to pass at the end of the Super Bowl, instead of handing off to Lynch. The ball was ultimately intercepted on the goal line by Malcolm Butler, sealing the game for Brady’s Patriots.