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Kevin Costner Remembers Epic ‘Draft Day’ Scene Amid 2022 NFL Draft

As the NFL restocked with talent the past three days, Kevin Costner threw it back to that time when he was calling the shots on Draft Day.

Confused? Costner, the patriarch of Yellowstone, is known for a lot of sports movies, but he starred in a hidden gem of one eight years ago. That’s when Costner played Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver. And this movie wasn’t about the X’s and O’s in the fall. Rather, the movie represented a more cerebral part of the game, when the folks in the front office call the shots each April. Yes, we’re talking Draft Day.

So, caught up in the spirit of late April, Kevin Costner posted a clip from Draft Day to his Instagram account. He asked, “How’s your draft going?”

Setting up the Draft Day Scene with Kevin Costner

The scene showed how Costner, as Weaver, talked his way back into the draft picks he’d already traded away. He got the guy he really wanted, as opposed to a flashier choice favored by the team owner and fans.

The scene opens with Costner, as Weaver, trying to deal his way back into the sixth pick by using moxie and a smidge of crazy.

“Sorry that deals now off the table,” he tells Seattle GM Tom Michaels. And Michaels is confused by the call.

“We live in a different world than we did just 30 seconds ago,” Weaver tells Michaels, who then asks him what he wants now.

“I want my picks back,” Weaver says. “and I want David Putney. I want a punt returner. And Michaels is even more perplexed. “Where’d the hell that come from?”

Costner: “doesn’t matter. I want all my picks back and I want David (swear words) Putney.” Michaels tells Weaver he’s out of his mind. And Weaver agrees: “Yes, I am. Haven’t I proved that already?” Then Weaver teases him with the idea of quarterback Bo Callahan, the Heisman winner. It’s the guy Weaver got talked into taking. He’d rather have the Ohio State linebacker, Vontae Mack (played by the late Chadwick Boseman).

“You make this deal right now and you get Bo Callahan,” Weaver tells Michaels. “Say it with me. … Come on Tom, say it with me … come on, say it with me, you pancake-eating (more curse words).”.

Michaels calls deal, and Weaver, with a wide grin, ends it with “God damn, I love this job” moment.

Here’s that key Draft Day scene with Kevin Costner. You can catch a glimpse of other stars Denis Leary, Chi McBride, Frank Langella and Patrick St. Esprit.

There’s not near that much intense wheeling and dealing on a normal draft day, although Thursday’s opening first round did feature a ton of movement. There were nine trades during the first round. And there were five swaps involving first round placement in the days leading up to the draft.

Back in 2014, when Kevin Costner was doing publicity for the movie, he talked about how Draft Day showed a different side of football.

“It’s a very intuitive person that understands that the game always doesn’t have to be about the winning shot, doesn’t always have to be about winning,” Costner told USA Today. “That a lot of heroism can come out of defeat, a lot of level of high understanding, empathy, can come out of somebody who just can’t get out of their own way but is true to themselves, even in the most crucial, critical moment of their life. And so, there’s a certain poetry that these characters have, vulgarity aside.”