Jerry Maguire

Jerry Maguire is a slick 35-year-old sports agent working for Sports Management International (SMI). After criticism from an injured player's son triggers a life-altering epiphany, he writes a mission statement about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business and his desire to work with fewer clients to produce a better, more caring personal relationship with them.

In response, SMI management sends Bob Sugar, Jerry's protégé, to fire him. This spurs both men to each call all of Jerry's clients to try to convince them not to hire the services of the other. Jerry speaks to Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell, one of his clients who is disgruntled with his contract. He needs a $10 million contract for his family to live on. Jerry informs him if he gets injured for the season, he will get no money from the Cardinals. Rod tests Jerry's resolve through a very long telephone conversation, during which Bob Sugar persuades the rest of Jerry's clients to stick with SMI.

Leaving the office, Jerry announces that he will start his own agency and asks if anyone will join him, to which only 26-year-old single mother Dorothy Boyd agrees. Frank "Cush" Cushman, a superstar quarterback prospect who expects to be the number one pick in the NFL Draft, initially also stays with Jerry after he makes a visit to the Cushman home. However, Sugar persuades Cushman and his father to sign with SMI over Jerry the night before the draft.

After an argument Jerry breaks up with his disgruntled fiancée Avery. He then turns to Dorothy, becoming closer to her young son, Ray, and starts a relationship with her. Dorothy contemplates moving to San Diego as she has a secure job offer there; however, she and Jerry then decide to get married.

Jerry concentrates all his efforts on Rod, now his only client, who turns out to be very difficult to satisfy. Over the next several months, the two direct harsh criticism towards each other with Rod insisting that Jerry is not trying hard enough to get him a contract while Jerry contends that Rod is not proving himself worthy of the money for which he demands; one point of contention is that Rod is not very likable and comes across as aloof to the fans.

Rod takes Jerry's advice to prove he is worthy of his contract. He is playing well and his team is winning. Jerry's marriage with Dorothy deteriorates as she notices he seems crazier about Ray than her, so they separate.

During a December Monday Night Football game between the Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys, Rod plays well but appears to receive a serious injury when catching a winning touchdown, securing a spot for the Cardinals in the playoffs. He recovers and dances for the wildly cheering crowd.

Afterwards, Jerry and Rod embrace in front of other athletes and sports agents and show how their relationship has progressed from a strictly business one to a close personal one, which was one of the points Jerry made in his mission statement. He then flies back home to meet Dorothy, telling her that he loves her and wants her in his life, which she reciprocates.

Rod appears on Roy Firestone's sports show. Unbeknownst to him, Jerry has secured him an $11.2 million contract with the Cardinals, allowing him to finish his pro football career in Arizona. The emotional Rod proceeds to thank everyone and extends warm gratitude to Jerry. Jerry speaks with several other pro athletes, some of whom have read his earlier mission statement and respect his work with Rod.

The film concludes with Ray throwing a baseball in the air which surprises Jerry. He then speaks of Ray's possible future sports industry career with Dorothy.

As Themselves

Cameron Crowe originally wrote the screenplay for Tom Hanks. Crowe took so long to write the screenplay that by the time the film was ready to be made, he thought Hanks was too old to play the part.[6] Woody Harrelson was offered the role but turned it down. Rod Tidwell was partially modeled after Charley Taylor.[7]

Janet Jackson auditioned and was initially accepted for the role of Marcee Tidwell, though it later went to Regina King, who previously co-starred in Janet Jackson's debut film Poetic Justice.[8][9] Jackson is referenced twice in the film, with a Janet poster seen hanging in Teepee's room and Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character Rod Tidwell asking "What Have You Done for Me Lately?", paying homage to Jackson's hit of the same name.[10][11]

Artie Lange filmed a scene for the movie but it was edited out of the final cut.[10]

Patricia Arquette, Kate Beckinsale, Bridget Fonda, Winona Ryder, Marisa Tomei, Cameron Diaz, Uma Thurman and Jennifer Lopez were all considered for the part of Dorothy.[6] Mira Sorvino was also considered for Dorothy but the producers would not meet her quote.[6] The producers also considered Janeane Garofalo for the role of Dorothy but she was deemed too old for the part.[12] Connie Britton auditioned for the role of Dorothy,[13] and the choice was narrowed down to Zellweger and Britton, with Zellweger winning the part.[14] Damon Wayans and Mykelti Williamson were considered for the role of Rod Tidwell.[6] Jamie Foxx unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Rod Tidwell.[15] Diane Lane was considered for the role of Avery Bishop; however, the role was eventually given to Kelly Preston.[6] Billy Wilder was considered for the part of Jerry's mentor Dicky Fox.[6]

TriStar received merchandise and marketing services of over $1.5 million from Reebok in exchange for incorporating a commercial into the film and depicting the Reebok brand within certain agreed-upon standards; when the film was theatrically released, the commercial had been left out and a tirade including "broadsides against Reebok" was included.[16] When the film aired on television, the Reebok commercial had been embedded into the film as originally agreed upon.[16] The "Special Edition" DVD release of the film, which has the film's theatrical edit, includes the commercial as bonus content.

Jerry Maguire spawned several popular quotations, including "Show me the money!" (shouted repeatedly in a phone exchange between Rod Tidwell and Jerry Maguire), "You complete me" , "Help me help you," "The key to this business is personal relationships" and "You had me at 'hello'" (said by Renée Zellweger's Dorothy Boyd after a lengthy romantic plea by Jerry Maguire), and "Kwan," a word used by Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Tidwell meaning love, respect, community, and money (also spelled "quan" and "quawn") to illustrate the difference between himself and other football players: "Other football players may have the coin, but they won't have the 'Kwan'." These lines are largely attributed to Cameron Crowe, director and screenwriter of the film. Zellweger said of filming the famous "hello" line, "Cameron had me say it a few different ways. It's so funny, because when I read it, I didn't get it–I thought it was a typo somehow. I kept looking at it. It was the one thing in the script that I was looking at going, 'Is that right? Can that be right? How is that right?' I thought, 'Is there a better way to say that? Am I not getting it? I just don't know how to do it.'"[30] Brandt stated in 2014 that "I definitely noticed an uptick of young people becoming interested in the agent business after Jerry Maguire".[24] "Some of what happened to the agent industry would have happened without 'Jerry,' but definitely not as fast as it did," noted Peter Schaffer, who has been a sports agent since 1988.[31]

In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten Top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Jerry Maguire was acknowledged as the tenth best film in the sports genre.[32][33] It was also voted by AFI as #100 on its list of 100 Passions.[34] The quotes "Show me the money!" and "You had me at 'hello'" were also ranked by AFI on its list of 100 Movie Quotes, ranked #25 and #52 respectively.[35]

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies– Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs– Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions– #100
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • Secret Garden– Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  • "Show me the money!" – #25
  • "You had me at 'hello.'"– #52
  • "You complete me."–Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers–Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated
• AFI's 10 Top 10– #10 Sports Film (also nominated Romantic Comedy)

In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Jerry Maguire one of the 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years.[36]

In 2017, the NFL produced two "A Football Life" mockumentaries to commemorate the film's 20th anniversary edition; they portray the careers of Rod Tidwell and Frank Cushman after the events of the film. Beau Bridges, Jay Mohr, Jerry O'Connell, and Aries Spears reprised their roles from the film, along with Roy Firestone and several real-life sports figures, including Shaquille O'Neal. According to the fictional history, Cushman retired after only four years due to a severe case of athlete's foot, and devoted himself to charity work with children with the same affliction; Tidwell was offered an even more lucrative contract, but declined, declaring that the "quan" was not there, and he preferred to devote more time to his family. The Tidwell mockumentary also features an adult Ray Boyd, inspired by Jerry and Rod to own his own boxing gym.

The motion picture soundtrack CD includes:

In a February 2021 interview, Cameron Crowe revealed that he had considered making a sequel to Jerry Maguire, and that he had been approached several times about making a TV series adaptation of the film. In both cases he felt that any continuation of the film's story should focus on Rod Tidwell and his family life with wife Marcee.[41][42]

• List of films featuring the deaf and hard of hearing
• List of American football films

Wikiquote has quotations related to Jerry Maguire.

• Jerry Maguire at IMDb
• Jerry Maguire at Rotten Tomatoes
• Jerry Maguire at Metacritic
• The Jerry Maguire Journal, a log kept by Crowe during the film's production and published in Rolling Stone in December 1996.
• "Things we think and do not say", the memo that led Maguire to establish his own agency. Archived from the original on November 9, 2012.
• Jerry Maguire, film script (text document)
• Leigh Steinberg (the agent based on Jerry Maguire) talks about Cameron Crowe and the film