axl playing football is not believable
5 foot 8 and 135 pounds...on a scholarship? ummmmmm, no.
shareRemember he said he wants out for that reason
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MovieChat Forums > The Middle (2009) Discussion > axl playing football is not believable
The scholarship is what is questionable, not the being on a team. Maybe its a D-3 school, those guys aren't big or fast really, if they were they'd be D-1.
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D-3 has no scholarships. He would have to be at a minimum D-2 school or an NAIA school. However, those teams usually have only a limited number of full scholarships and alot of the team is walk ons or guys given partial. If he had a full scholarship he would have been forced out by now. A small school can't afford a full scholarshiop on a guy who never plays.
shareYep! Plus the fact that he doesn't live in the jock dorm (which most universities have). You never see him working out and he is home almost every episode. I played football when I was in high school and was about the same proportions as Axel. My school was a really small 4A school with a student body of around 500. Every waking moment outside of class was spent in the gym, after school and weekends were constant practice drills and I was second string. Plus, everyone had passing grades or they were cut!
At college he would have lost his eligibility when he was on academic probation, etc... Punter, team mascot, towel boy or MAYBE a baseball scholarship. A full ride football scholarship? No fringing way! Not to mention that they have made his character stupider, more obnoxious and lazier with each episode.
The Dad is useless, the Mom is lazy. Sue should have been at a christian college, not a state university. It would have been funny if they made her character "go wild" when she hit the college scene instead of making her even lamer. Brick obviously has Asperger's syndrome and should be praised for his encyclopedic knowledge and obsessive need to read everything. No! Instead of being encouraged, he is ridiculed.
The show started out pretty good with good actors who will hopefully go on to do other, better things. It WAS funny with quirky small town characters. Unfortunately the writing has gotten lamer with each season. They just need to let it die.
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I haven´t seen every episode, but in the season 5 episodes I am watching now, he always runs around with a basketball. So I always thought he is on a basketball scholarship.
I thought the same thing, Barbara.
"Sometimes life hands you lemons that are worth 2 in the bush, I like kittens."
It seemed he was heading that way, for a while. The football thing literally came out of left field.
shareI just watched season 6 and 7 and at least they didn´t make him a big star. He is pretty much a loser on the team.
So at least, this is a bit more realistic.
That's the point...if he is such a loser, why is the school still giving him a full scholarship boat? Makes no sense.
shareMaybe the whole team sucks, so it doesn´t really matter, because the need a certain number of players? To be honest, I am not from the US, so I don´t know how this whole college football thing works. But maybe they keep him to have enough players.
shareThey wouldn't keep funding a player for 3 year (and I assume his senior year, as well), when he never plays. That's just crazy. I don't know what the writers were thinking when they decided to make Axl a jock, since his doesn't have the height for basketball nor the size for football. Baseball I could see. Or Soccer. But for some reason, the writers went for the big sports and expect us to believe Axl can hold his own with college or even high school players. Not at 5 feet 8, 140 pounds!
It's getting to the point where Brick is almost as big as Axl!
no...but didn't one of the Brady Bunch sons make the football team as well?
plus, it is not a high percentage black school and area , is it?
that leaves him only the 230+pound white jocks to deal with..
Not to mention that they have made his character stupider, more obnoxious and lazier with each episode.
I like the show, but yeah, this is him.
I saw the actor in a telemovie recently, playing straight.I think it was one of those 'kids from rich influential town family murder kid from insignificant family and no body cares except crusading mom and reporter" movies...
He was a punk but in the end when the jig was up, he took his medicine.. share
no...but didn't one of the Brady Bunch sons make the football team as well?
Greg did but I think it was in just one episode. He got hurt and ended up just taking photos of the game he was suppose to play in. He was then asked to photograph each game. It was never mentioned again.
-Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, but Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad share
Axl, if he was a great high school running back, could at his size play Running Back for bottom level college football. What makes it so unbelievable that he plays football is that he is home every weekend, including the fall, on days they would be playing football.
shareWhat makes it so unbelievable that he plays football is that he is home every weekend, including the fall, on days they would be playing football.
And they've never showed him training, except for one very lame session that looked like a junior varsity high school team. No scenes in the weight room, and apparently, he's never lifted a barbell in his life. There was one episode about three seasons back devoted to his and Hutch's aim to "bulk up" for football, but like most everything in Middle land, it was dropped after the episode was done.
You mentioned the annulment as their jump the shark moment. I actually think the show jumped the shark the FIRST time when Axl suddenly went from failing almost every course to suddenly, within the course of an episode or two, solidly pulling a "B" average. That was just too downpat and ridiculous for me to accept. And apparently, he's been maintaining this B average ever since.
Another jump the shark moment was his having a full boat football scholarship. The school wasted its money on him, definitely. share
No scenes in the weight room, and apparently, he's never lifted a barbell in his life.
Good point, and it's hard to believe that the coach wouldn't have him in the weight room as part of the football team. share
Here is another thing about the botching of football. At the end of last season they made a big deal with him quiting football. If he had done so it would have solved the football plot hole and be a major move of character development. Instead at the very end, he discovers he needs the scholarship and save his football career.
Instead of the lame and stupid (using Axl speak) April episodes they could have done some with the end of his football days and senior day as a player. Now it is after Christmas and all of that would be behind him. Why save it to not use it?
Instead of the lame and stupid (using Axl speak) April episodes they could have done some with the end of his football days and senior day as a player. Now it is after Christmas and all of that would be behind him. Why save it to not use it?
A perfect example of the writers not knowing what to do with the characters once they stray out of the household. Football was happening at college, which--as is made clear with almost every episode--is a place the writers want to avoid exploring. Sue's time at school has been pretty much reduced to extra-curricular activities and where she lives. Axl's football career, as you so succinctly pointed out, just fell into oblivion.
I remember that episode where he was having second thoughts about quitting football, and Mike talked him out of it. The implication was that we'd see more emphasis on his time as a player. Unfortunately, it has been COMPLETELY ignored and now can't even be addressed.
It's just like his struggles to avoid academic expulsion. Once they came up with the "jump the shark moment" and made him a B+ student, his academics were never mentioned again.
When they come back from their break, there'll be more emphasis on Axl's impending graduation.I assume the season will end with the ceremony. Based on the template, I don't expect Axl to find a job away from Orson, and he certainly won't be living anywhere else.
The Middle is like an episode of The Twilight Zone. All roads lead away from Orson, but no matter what one you take, it brings you right back home. share
I agree.
It would have been good to see more about Axl and football at East Indiana State. The only episode with Axl playing in a game was his infamous "fumble" episode (when Mike Heck took Sue on the college tour). Then again, it's possible that Axl might have been little more than a practice dummy.
Still, Axl has been in school for four years. Football players are allowed five years of scholarship. Axl probably took one year as a red shirt anyway. It would be great if Axl stays in school to get an MBA and play one final year of football.
I think it was established that Axl hasn't seen the field much during games, especially after that notorious "fumble". They've even mentioned that his physique is not up to snuff for football, he was complaining about how all the freshmen coming in were bigger than he was.
That seems realistic to me.
I think it was established that Axl hasn't seen the field much during games, especially after that notorious "fumble". They've even mentioned that his physique is not up to snuff for football, he was complaining about how all the freshmen coming in were bigger than he was.
That seems realistic to me.
What I find unrealistic is that the school would still give him a full boat athletic scholarship, considering what you just cited. share
Why do you say that it is not believable?
shareyeah, so?
go watch a high school game.... see how scrawny most of them look...