The Waterboy
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Adam Sandler plays Bobby Boucher (pronounced in the French fashion as "Boo-SHAY"), a socially inept (but also intelligent) water boy with anger issues due to constant teasing and his mother's (Kathy Bates) excessive sheltering. He was the water boy for the fictitious University of Louisiana Cougars, but the players tormented him, and the team's head coach, Coach Red Beaulieu, (Jerry Reed) fired him for disrupting his team's practices. He later goes to Coach Klein (Henry Winkler), coach of the fictitious South Central Louisiana State University Mud Dogs, and volunteers to work as the team's water boy for free after seeing the filthy water that the coach provides his players. Coach Klein notices his anger problem and encourages Bobby to stand up for himself instead of letting the players walk all over him. Bobby then effortlessly tackles one of the players, prompting Coach Klein to put him on the field, with positive results. Despite his overprotective mother's disapproval (who mistakenly calls the sport "foosball"), he secretly continues to play football, and also secretly goes to school. Here, he uses his anger to tackle the opposing players by pretending they're the people who made fun of him throughout his life (the coach of the last football team he worked for, his mom, a guy who called him "needle dick", etc.). He quickly becomes one of the most feared linebackers in college football and love interest of Vicki Vallencourt (Fairuza Balk). They play so well with Bobby on the team that they make it to the Bourbon Bowl against the Cougars. But during their victory bonfire and celebration, Coach Beaulieu and his team drop a bomb by showing Bobby's high school transcript, which turns out to be fake. But Coach Klein tells Bobby that he can continue to play on the team, if he takes and passes a GED exam. When his mom sees him studying for the exam, she is shocked when she finds out that he has been playing football and going to school behind her back, but Bobby says that he likes school and football and that he has had enough of his mother's over protectiveness. On the day of the exam, Bobby passes the exam with flying colors. Then the police arrive and tell Bobby that his mom is in the hospital after suffering a heart attack, when actually she is faking her illness to keep Bobby from leaving her. While in the hospital, she finally shows Bobby why she's been so determined to keep him inside of her house. She reads him letters his father sent her, which shows he once left their home and, while he was out, fell for an attractive fortune teller named Phyllis. She explains to Bobby that she didn't want him leaving her the way his father did, and allows him to go to the football game, going with him to see what football is like. Bobby misses the first half of the game due to being in the hospital with his mother, causing the Mud Dogs to fall behind. But after mending ways with his mother, Bobby joins the game, he is able to reinforce their defense and prevent further losses, but Coach Beaulieu adopts a scorched earth tactic of running out the clock; he's already winning, he just needs to neutralize Bobby's tackling abilities. Fortunately, Bobby is able to help Coach Klein overcome his old fear of Coach Beaulieu by "pretend[ing] that Red Beaulieu is somebody [he's] not afraid of," and design brilliant new plays that Beaulieu is unable to counter. The Mud Dogs effectively score the winning touchdown at the very last instant. The movie ends with Bobby and Vicki getting married and driving off on his tractor, followed by the sudden reappearance of Bobby's father (who is quickly tackled down by Bobby's Mama!).
The movie was filmed in DeLand, Florida. The Mud Dogs home stadium is actually Spec Martin Memorial Stadium, where the DeLand High School Bulldogs play football and soccer. Some of the classroom footage was filmed at Stetson University, also located in DeLand.
