When Ken Carter was asked who should play him in the movie, he wrote down one name: Samuel L. Jackson.
The real Ken Carter was on set every day as an executive consultant. He said that Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal of him is 98.5 percent accurate. Carter's son Damien Carter was also an executive consultant.
The actors practiced in the gym for more than five hours a day.
The filmmakers shot the game scenes over and over from many different angles. The actors had to run a single play over one hundred times to get these shots.