I love Ryan Paevey and it was great to see him as the romantic lead in this football centric hallmark romance. I was happy to see that even though this was a football film, that they didn't make it male centric. Ryan Paevey plays the professional NFL football star Mike. He gets injured and has to go on injured reserve for his team while he rests his broken ribs and allows them to heal. His big brother Jimmy invites him to his home to rest with family support. There Jimmy and his wife Danielle talk Mike into helping Jimmy coach his daughter's all girl flag football team. Meanwhile, there is a single mom played by When Calls The Heart's Pascale Hutton whose daughter Kiera just wants to play football and is the only girl on her flag football team where they never give her a chance. One day while sharing the field she discovers the all girl team and has her mom talk to the two coaches. We learn that the reason Jimmy started his daughter's all girls team was because his daughter Zoey experienced the same thing as Kiera the year before. And this is how Pascale's character Erin meets Mike...again. As it turns out these two were college sweethearts and Erin broke Mike's heart.
This is filled with some sports romance cliches for sure...like the money grubbing manager played by the beloved Steve Bacic, the athlete having to leave town playing havoc on a romantic relationship, etc., but the truth is I didn't care. I enjoyed it and I appreciated some of the fresh aspects...like the struggle of girls who want to play, the camaraderie between the real estate partners Erin and Georgina that played out like a real friendship, and the loving and supportive family dynamic between Jimmy's family and Mike.
I though this was one of the better stories to come out of Hallmark, who has had a rough spell in my opinion trying to be too political or working overly hard to be inclusive and loosing the authenticity...that love and family that used to be their brand and attract their core audience. I feel like this was just a feel good romance that got back to that....love and family. I recommend this to all those romantics out there, especially fans of Hallmark.
