After gracing the big screen last year as Superman, David Corenswet will play a different kind of inspiring figure in “Mr. Irrelevant: The John Tuggle Story,” which got its first trailer on Sunday to time with the start of the 2026 NFL season.
As many NFL fans know, “Mr. Irrelevant” is a tongue-in-cheek moniker given to the man who is the last player selected each year in the NFL Draft. In 1983, that man was John Tuggle, a running back who played for the Cal Golden Bears in college and was drafted by the New York Giants.
With a combination of positive attitude, charm, and above all, an ironclad work ethic, Tuggle made it through training camp and preseason to earn a special teams spot on the Giants’ 53-man roster. But when his career and his life were turned upside-down by a cancer diagnosis, Tuggle inspired his teammates by fighting to the very end to keep his spot on the team even through chemotherapy.
Sadly, Tuggle succumbed to his cancer in August 1986, just before the start of a season that would end with the Giants winning Super Bowl XXI. When they took the field in that game, they wore Tuggle’s jersey number, No. 38, as a sticker on their helmets.
Corenswet stars in Mr. Irrelevant alongside Michael Shannon, who plays the Giants’ Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells, as well as Isabel May and David Krumholtz. Jonathan Levine directed and produced the film from a script by Nick Santora.
“Mr. Irrelevant: The John Tuggle Story” will be released by Paramount in theaters on Christmas Day. Watch the trailer in the video above.
