Michael Chiklis provides some veteran locker room presence in the first trailer for “The Senior,” a sports drama from Angel Studios.

The footage introduces the unlikely athletic journey of Mike Flynt, a real life linebacker who was expelled by his college shortly before graduating in the ’70s. Decades later and on the other side of middle-age, Flynt decided to make a comeback by rejoining his college roster, becoming the oldest linebacker in the history of NCAA football.

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Along with Chiklis, “The Senior” also stars Mary Stuart Masterson, Brandon Flynn, James Badge Dale and Rob Corddry. Rod Lurie directs. Robert Eisele wrote the screenplay, after being introduced to Flynt by producer Mark Ciardi in 2008 — one year after Flynt’s record-breaking season for Sul Ross State University in Texas.

“I love football — everything about it: the intensity, the strategies, the artfulness of the athleticism… but mostly, I am imbued with it as a metaphor for playing to the final whistle,” Lurie said in a statement accompanying the trailer’s release. “That, you see, is what the story of Mike Flynt fully represents.”

Producers on “The Senior” include Ciardi (whose credits include other sports dramas like “The Rookie” and “Miracle”) and Campbell McInnes for Select Films, as well as Justin Baldoni and Andrew Calof for Wayfarer Studios. The film first premiered at Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in November 2023.

Angel Studios boarded “The Senior” earlier in July. The distributor has set a Sept. 19 theatrical release date for the feature. Watch the full trailer below.

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