Netflix’s Home Team is a true story inspired by the life of NFL coach, Sean Payton, after he gets suspended from the New Orleans Saints. He then returns home to reconnect with his ex-wife and son but ends up coaching the latter’s school football team.
Summary
Home Team opens with Sean Payton (Kevin James) standing on the sidelines of the Super Bowl XLIV in 2009 as the coach of the New Orlean Saints. The team makes a final play and wins the championship for the first time ever.
Two years later, the infamous Bountygate scandal — an incident in which members of the New Orleans Saints were accused of handing out bonuses to their players for injuring opposition players — comes to light and Sean is thrown under the bus as coach.
He is consequently suspended for the season but decides to appeal this decision. Meanwhile, he drives back to Texas to reconnect with his teenage son, Connor (Tait Blum).
Once back, he is met with resentment from Connor but is welcomed by his ex-wife, Beth (Jackie Sandler) and her new husband, Jamie (Rob Schneider). In order to spend more time with the boy, Sean visits him during a football game and notices the terrible condition the local team is in.
Later he speaks to the current coach, Troy Lambert (Taylor Lautner) and his old deputy Mitch Bizone (Gary Valentine) and gets to know that the team, known as the Argyle Warriors, has been losing without scoring a single goal so far in the season.
They always end up having the scoreboard turned off — a move that sees the organisers end the game and switch off the scoring when a team goes down by 40 points to avoid further embarrassment.
After a few more miserable displays and failed attempts to spend time with Connor, Sean takes up Troy’s offer to become a part of the team’s coaching staff.
The kids are ecstatic to have a pro NFL coach in-charge and try their best to adapt to his high coaching standards. Sean makes a fresh playbook for the entire team and staff to go through but they end up losing the next game as well.
The kids then confess that they didn’t understand the plays so Sean describes everything to them using food metaphors, which they learn by heart. And evidently so, the season starts turning around for them as they start winning games. Sean also succeeds in getting into the good books of his son as well as the entire team.
However, there are still some chinks in the Warriors’ armour which Sean needs to finesse. Does he manage to polish the team and win the season or do his efforts go in vain.
Home Team ending explained in detail:
Sorting out weaknesses
Sean studies the team and changes up the positions of the kids according to their strengths, much to the resentment of the parents. However, when they start winning, everyone learns to trust him.
However, there are still a few challenges in his path. The team’s field goal kicker, Harlan (Manny Magnus), has a great leg during practice but always chokes during games — a development he blames on pressure.
Furthermore, another kid, Dennis (Bryant Tardy), is built strong but always evades contact by running away from potential tackles instead of getting into them.
Sean learns that Harlan’s issue is more romantic than pressuring as he always gets nervous during games due his crush being in the stands. The team decides to help Harlan by accompanying him to the girl’s house as he sings and confesses his feelings for her.
The gesture is sweet but goes horribly wrong when a fire lantern, which they bring along, gets caught up in a tree and leads to a disaster. Sean also moves Dennis into a new position where he is forced to face the opposition’s tacklers but he still does not engage in contact.
Even though he isn’t able to fix everything, the team still goes on a winning spree until they play the reigning champions, The Springtown Porcupines. The game turns out to be an extremely physical one and the Warriors get battered.
The Super Log
As things get better for the team, they also get better for Sean and Connor. They start conversing and the latter finally starts appreciating his dad being back.
Connor expresses to him one day after practice that he doesn’t know him but would like to and this pleases Sean. The two then talk about the latter’s excursions as a pro NFL coach.
Meanwhile, the team is demoralised after their horrifying loss to the Porcupines and Sean picks up their morale by telling them that they’re going to reach the championship and play them again, to beat them.
On the day of their penultimate game, Jamie prepares home-made energy bars — which he names the Super Log — and hands out to the entire team as they get into the bus.
Amid heavy rain, the game reaches the final seconds and the Warriors are one touchdown away from the finals. However, the Super Logs act out and the entire team starts throwing up.
The referee thinks of forfeiting but Sean screams at him that he isn’t legally allowed to do so. The play carries on and the Warriors win as the opposition steers clear from the barfing kids.
Lights out
The day of the final approaches and the team is ready for redemption. Meanwhile, Sean stays up all night a day before the game figuring out plays to tackle the Porcupines’ offence.
He calls his former coach who explains that the opposition uses an old play from the 50s and also tells him the trick to beating it. The day of the game arrives and the warriors open brilliantly, scoring the first touchdown.
However, the Porcupines respond equally well and the contest turns fierce. Sean implements the new tactics and uses his offensive runners in defence, leaving the actual defenders on the bench alongside Harlan, who hasn’t played in a while due to his pressure situation.
As halftime arrives, Connor and Marcos (Jacob Perez) are tired due to running both offence and defence and despite being a point ahead, the team’s energy is low.
Connor finally confronts his dad about his strict desire to win instead of prioritising fun and things get heated between the two. As the game resumes, Sean thinks about his decisions and realises that he’s ruining whatever he’s built with his son and decides to switch things back to normal.
The game still goes well and the Warriors have a final few seconds to run the last play for the win. However, Sean again switches the play to the field goal unit in order to let Harlan play as well and goes for a tie instead.
Harlan steps up and notices his crush holding a “Go Harlan” placard below the scoreboard. High in spirits, he kicks the ball and it flies high towards the goal but misses it and hits the scoreboard instead.
As the Porcupines celebrate, the scoreboard malfunctions due to the impact and the lights start exploding. Everyone stares in awe as it shuts down and the Warriors rejoice that despite losing the championship, they turned off the scoreboard on their rivals.
Sean accepts the runners-up trophy and everyone celebrates. Later, the father-son duo discuss Connor visiting Sean next season when he’ll be back coaching the New Orleans Saints — an invitation which he gladly accepts.
The film ends with Sean returning to his office as coach and placing the Texas Championship runners-up trophy next to the NFL Super Bowl one.
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