In the TV movie Love on the Sidelines, aspiring fashion designer Laurel Welk (Emily Kinney) gets a job working as a personal assistant for an injured football player, quarterback Danny Holland (John Reardon). They don’t hit it off at first. Danny isn’t thrilled to spend his days with a woman who doesn’t know a touchdown from a home run. But as Danny’s father Owen will tell him, there’s more to life than football.
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Danny’s father Owen Holland is portrayed by Joe Theismann, former quarterback of the Washington Redskins. He played college football at the University of Notre Dame, where (the story goes) Notre Dame’s sports information department convinced him to change the pronunciation of his name “THEES-man” to rhyme with the coveted “Heisman” Trophy. That year, in 1970, the Heisman went to Stanford’s Jim Plunkett. Theismann later led Washington to victory in Super Bowl XVII. Love on the Sidelines premieres on Hallmark Channel on January 16 at 9pm.
