After 18 Years, ‘The Senior’ Football Movie Is Finally Hitting Theaters

During the summer of 2007, Hollywood producer Mark Ciardi was sitting in his office when he came across an article in the Los Angeles Times on Mike Flynt, a 59-year-old who had recently made the football team at Sul Ross State University in west Texas. Flynt was once a captain and starting linebacker at Sul Ross, but he was kicked out of school before his senior season in 1971 for his involvement in a fight. He always regretted the way his career ended, so he decided to return to school decades later after attending a reunion and having former teammates tell him he should give football another shot.

Ciardi, a former professional baseball pitcher, had produced a few major sports film and thought Flynt’s story would make an ideal movie. As such, he got in touch with Flynt and traveled to Sul Ross, which is in Alpine, Texas, about 375 miles west of San Antonio and 90 miles from the Mexico border. That weekend, after meeting Flynt and his coaches, teammates and wife, Ciardi reached an agreement with Flynt to seek a movie about his life.

Now, nearly 18 years later, Flynt’s story is finally hitting the big screen. On Sept. 19, the movie, “The Senior,” will be released in theaters nationwide.

“Mike got a look into the film business,” said Ciardi, laughing. “Some things take a while to come together.”

He added: “Time doesn’t always matter. These become evergreen, whether it happened in 2007 or present day. These stories resonate.”

After retiring from baseball in 1987, the year he pitched in four games for the Milwaukee Brewers, Ciardi spent the next decade working in other industries before moving to Los Angeles in the late 1990s. At the time, he had friends in the movie business, and he thought he would give producing a shot, possibly in comedies or thrillers. But his first big break came in 2002 with the release of “The Rookie,” a film he produced about Jim Morris, a former teammate who made his Major League Baseball debut at age 35.

In 2004, Ciardi produced “Miracle,” a movie about the U.S. hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Two years later, he produced “Invincible,” a film about Vince Papale, who made his National Football League debut at age 30 despite having never played in college.

When Ciardi met Flynt in 2007, he envisioned Flynt’s story serving as “the trilogy of second-chance” sports movies alongside “The Rookie” and “Invincible.” Flynt, though, hadn’t given any thought about becoming a national story when he decided to return to Sul Ross. Still, when he told members of his church in Franklin, Tenn., that he would try out for the team, they had a different reaction.

“People came up to me afterwards and were saying there’s going to be a book and there’s going to be a movie,” Flynt said. “And I was thinking, ‘Who cares about an old man going back to play college football?’ I didn’t get it. I didn’t see where there was going to be any interest. It was never on my radar at all.”

A book about Flynt, also titled “The Senior,” was published in 2008 shortly after Flynt’s season ended. He had only appeared in a few games and played on special teams for an NCAA Division III program that finished with a 5-5 record. He didn’t have any tackles or any other statistics, but his age and background clicked with people.

After getting kicked out of Sul Ross in 1971, Flynt worked as a strength and conditioning coach over the next decade with Nebraska, Oregon and Texas A&M and then spent more than 25 years in the fitness industry while living in Tennessee and raising his three children. He had stayed in top shape throughout his 40s and 50s and was 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds when he made the team in 2007, about the same height and weight he was three decades earlier. And he felt he could have an impact on younger teammates.

“I knew that there was nothing that I could do to change the past and that regret that I had, but I felt like I could change the meaning of the past,” Flynt said. “If I were to help a bunch of young guys, I could substitute it for those guys I let down all those years ago.”

Through the years, Ciardi said there were about 20 times when he thought a movie on Flynt’s life would come to fruition, only to be left disappointed but determined.

“I would say (to Flynt), ‘I’m telling you this thing’s going to get made. I can’t tell you how long, but I won’t give up on it,’” Ciardi said.

In 2021, Wayfarer Studios struck a deal to finance the movie. Michael Chiklis, a veteran actor best known as star of “The Shield” television series, signed on to play Flynt. It was a natural role for Chiklis, a big sports fan and captain of his high school football team near Boston. His dog is named Tom Brady, after the former quarterback of the New England Patriots, Chiklis’s favorite football team. When the movie was filmed, Chiklis was 59, the same age as Flynt was when he played at Sul Ross. Chiklis said he participated in about 90% of the football scenes.

“I gotta tell you – I was (expletive) fired up, man. I was so psyched,” Chiklis said. “I played my (expletive) off. I had really one of the times of my life making this picture. Talk about feeling like a kid again.”

During the filming, Chiklis grew close to Flynt, who was on set in Forth Worth, Texas, with his wife.

“They were lovely, and they were unobtrusive,” Chiklis said. “I was afraid the guy was going to be giving me notes, coming over to me every five minutes, but he was nothing like that. He was just fascinated by the process and humbled by all of it.”

Said Flynt: “I absolutely loved every second of it. Someone’s making a movie about your life, and they welcome you to be there, where else are you going to be? What’s more important than that?”

On Monday night, Flynt, Chiklis and others will be in the Dallas suburb of Bedford, Texas, for the premier of “The Senior.” They will walk the red carpet, watch a screening and attend an after-party. And then, 11 days later, the movie will appear in theaters nationwide, something that seemed implausible over the years as the rejections kept piling up.

“We could really use some positive films like this, stories of personal redemption and triumph and overcoming adversity, things that portray a world that isn’t just dismal and hateful and upsetting,” Chiklis said. “We all have challenges, and we all make mistakes. The thing that I love about Mike Flynt’s story is that the guy wanted to do something about it.”