Series Description

Against the Grain was a 60 minute sports drama series on NBC about an insurance salesman who was given a chance to coach the high school football team that he had once played on as the star player.

Against the Grain Cast

John Terry .... Ed Clemons
Donna Bullock .... Maggie Clemons
Ben Affleck .... Joe Willie Clemons
Robyn Lively .... Jill Clemons
Vanessa Lee Evigan .... Jenny Clemons
Rick Peters .... Bobby Taylor
Stephen Tobolowsky .... Niles Hardeman
Derek McGrath .... Abel

Against the Grain Trivia

Coach Ed Clemons had no problem deciding between his humdrum life as an insurance salesman and the opportunity to mold his old team into a winning organization even though he was only given one year to turn around their horrible, long-term losing record!

Ed's wife Maggie took over Ed's insurance business when he took the coaching job.

The Against the Grain TV show was set in the small town of Sumpter, Texas. The high school football team was named the Sumpter Mustangs.

One of the main problems with the Mustangs was that their quarterback really stunk! Coach Clemons almost immediately replaced him with the best player he could find. The problem was that the best player just happened to be the Coach's son!

By the way, note in the cast list above that Coach Clements son and star quarterback in the making was played by a teenager named Ben Affleck who would go on to movie stardom! Ben has appeared on TV a few other times though including three times hosting "Saturday Night Live" and on the reality series "Project Green Light".