While most of the marketing (and the film’s poster) plays up the football action, sports nuts need to be aware Leatherheads isn’t a football film in the traditional sense. Instead, Leatherheads is a romantic comedy aimed at adults with a taste for slapstick who’ll forgive the fact football takes a backseat to a spunky love story fueled by snappy, rapid-fire dialogue.
The Story

Leatherheads takes a look way, way back in time to when professional football was taking its very first baby steps toward being an organized sports league. In the early days, players played the sport for the love of the game, a couple of bucks, and the thrill of being part of a team. The game itself more closely resembled rugby than anything else, with passing used only sporadically. Trick plays, cheating (a certain New England Patriots coach would have fit right in) and fistfights were the order of the day. Finding sponsors and paying for roadtrips was tough work for the fledgling league in the 1920s, and teams folded with little or no warning.

At the center of the Leatherheads story is Dodge Connolly (Clooney). One of the sport’s most recognizable players/advocates, Dodge is a quick-witted, middle-aged player who calls the plays, captain’s the team, and even ghost-writes the sports column for the local newspaper reporter who spends most of his days three sheets to the wind. Dodge loses the battle to keep his struggling Bulldogs team afloat but, ever the smooth-talker, he refuses to stay down for the count.
Source: About

Exclusively on About.com – Leatherheads Interviews

George Clooney and Stephen Root Interviews
John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, and Matt Bushell Interviews
Renee Zellweger, Tim Griffin and Malcolm Goodwin