Yahoo Finance Kevin James to play Saints football coach Sean Payton in Netflix film tackling 'Bountygate' scandal
Kevin James and Netflix are set to tackle "Bountygate."
The Paul Blart: Mall Cop and King of Queens vet will play Sean Payton in the film Home Team, according to the New Orleans Saints football coach himself.
The movie will have a "humorous Adam Sandler" spin, Payton told ESPN, as it dramatizes the aftermath of Payton's suspension in 2012 when members of the NFL team were accused of paying out bonuses for injuring players on opposing teams.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Payton as head coach of the Saints for the entire season. Payton says Home Team will be more about how he became the offensive coach for his son Connor's sixth grade football team, the Warriors, during that time.
Reps for James directed EW to Netflix when asked for comment. Netflix did not provide comment to EW.
The news was first reported in NBC's Peter King column Football Morning in America.
Mireya Acierto/Getty Images; Wesley Hitt/Getty Images Kevin James and Sean Payton.
Payton says he had a video conference with James about the role and feels confident the cast and crew will do "a great job."
As to the matter of James playing Payton, he said, "Listen, I'm at that age where I don't really care."
The film is said to be produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions, which has been developing a number of movies — ranging from Murder Mystery to Hubie Halloween — for Netflix. Sandler is also developing Hustle, which stars the actor as a down-on-his-luck basketball scout.
James, too, is no stranger to the streamer. He featured in some of Sandler's Netflix films, including Hubie Halloween and Sandy Wexler. He also stars on the series The Crew.
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