BMann Back on the Silver Screen

The FieldTurf installation at Memorial Field is just about finished. These photos were shot Aug. 21. (click on pictures to enlarge)

Opening Friday at a theater new you ... Invincible, the true story of how Vince Papale, as Yahoo Movies explains, a "30 year-old, substitute teacher and part-time bartender who never even played college football," won a spot on the Philadelphia Eagles' roster during an open tryout. And the reason it's mentioned on the Green Alert Blog?

Former Dartmouth quarterback Brian Mann '02, who was Adam Sandler's stunt double in The Longest Yard, has a bit role in the movie Invincible, filmed largely at Penn's Franklin Field. An Arena League veteran who started several games last year for the LA Avengers, Mann plays former Eagles quarterback Mike Boryla in the new movie. "If you see a goofy-looking guy wearing No. 10 with an afro, that's me," Mann said in a story earlier this year.

Mann said in an email earlier this week that he is spending the fall coaching quarterbacks in his old high school (Xaverian Brothers) in Westwood, Mass., and preparing for filming to begin again on The Game Plan, yet another football movie with wrestler-turned-actor The Rock. That movie was put on hold when The Rock injured his Achilles tendon. According to Brian, filming will begin in mid- to late-September.

A member of the Screen Actors Guild, Mann also worked in a Nike commercial featuring Detroit Lions receiver Roy Williams.

Joe Winters, who graduated from Columbia last spring, has been named starting quarterback at Division II University of Missouri-Rolla. Winters is using his final year of eligibility up as a graduate student enrolled in UMR’s new MBA program. NCAA rules allow it, but it still seems strange. ...

Defending Ivy League champion Brown is about to open camp. ... Cornell has been practicing for a few days and in this story coach Jim Knowles talks about his freshman class.

Former Brown tailback Nick Hartigan gave money to his thesis advisor's campaign last year only to have it returned when news of the gift became public. After graduation, he gave the money again, and that has raised a few questions.

Check the Green Alert subscription site later today for a look at the 2006 Holy Cross team, the last of a series of opponent previews.