Mike Flynt: The True Story Behind The Senior Movie

What if Rudy grew up and went back to play college football at 59? Meet Mike Flynt, the real-life inspiration for Angel Studios’ new movie The Senior, hitting theaters September 19.

In this powerful episode of the Covenant Eyes Podcast, host Karen Potter sits down with Mike Flynt to unpack the extraordinary true story that inspired The Senior—a film about second chances, redemption, and faith on and off the football field.

At age 59, Mike returned to play college football, chasing the dream he thought was lost forever. His journey touches on faith, fatherhood, forgiveness, and the power of never giving up.

🎥 The Senior Movie (Angel Studios) releases nationwide in theaters on September 19, 2025.

⭐ Don’t miss Mike’s testimony of overcoming regret and discovering new purpose in Christ.

🔗 Resources & Links:
Learn more about Covenant Eyes: https://cvnteyes.co/4gb6xme
Get tickets for The Senior: https://www.angel.com/movies/senior
Subscribe for more inspiring interviews: https://youtube.com/@covenanteyes

#TheSeniorMovie #MikeFlynt #AngelStudios #FaithAndFootball #CovenantEyesPodcast #RedemptionStory #ChristianFilm #MichaelChiklis #SecondChances

Timestamps:
00:00 – Welcome & intro to The Senior
01:00 – Movie trailer audio clip
03:29 – Meet Mike Flynt: his story of redemption
06:33 – Friday Night Lights connection
09:44 – From coaching to comeback at age 59
12:24 – Playing with faith and a new purpose
15:21 – Family reactions & support
18:15 – How the film came to be
21:14 – Cast: Michael Chiklis, Mary Stuart Masterson & more
23:01 – Redemption, forgiveness, and faith through film
25:35 – Why The Senior matters today
26:21 – Closing encouragement

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Transcript

0:00

Hey everybody, welcome back to The Covenant Eyes Podast. It is so good to have you joining us today. We are interviewing a very special guest who is the feature of a new film coming out by our friends over at Angel Studios. If you like football, if you like Faith and you love a story of redemption, you are going to love this film. It basically is. If Rudy grew up, raised a family, and went through a series of personal failures in life, but then at the age of 59, decided to go back and play college football, what would happen? This film is incredible. You are going to love it. And today we are interviewing Mike Flynt, who is actually the person the film is all about. Angel Studios put together an incredible film. We're going to show you a clip of that film, and then we are going to roll right into an interview with Mike Flynt. You are going to love this conversation. Stay tuned. Football. The greatest game in the history of mankind. It's more than that. It's a shot. Hello at immortality. I never finished my senior year. Why not? I got thrown out for fighting. And you're done. What kind of a captain gets kicked off his own team? I wish I could go back and do it all over again. I'm eligible. Eligible for what? To play. Every one of you is going to have to earn a spot on this team. Just to be clear, there's no hidden camera somewhere. No one's going to run over me. I'll guarantee you that. Okay, okay. Yo, yo, yo, what's listening to, man? Music? Well, we used to listen to what I say. Now, wait, I like this. That's something to say. So, man, you ready for me? By the time you're out of town drunk, you go red and die hard. But how are you doing this at your age, man? He's like a 59. year old Rudy. Oh. He's my father. I'm coming for you, old man. I don't want to watch him break his neck. If you got hurt, it would. Destroy every soul on this team. What's this one? I have to be a win. It's not about winning. I know why you have to do this. And I'm with you. This game, it's a second chance. We're not defined by our successes. We're defined by our regrets. I've had a ton as a teammate, great as a husband, as a dad. I still suck. What? I don't let tonight be. That first regret. Will Mike Flynt finally get his name in the history books. Let's make this a game they'll always remember. That's you. Flynt. We want Mike. Hey, everybody. We are so honored to have Mike Flynt joining us to talk about his film that is coming out called The Senior. Mike, welcome to the show. Thank you. Karen. Thanks for having me. I'm excited about being here. Yeah. So the film is kind of about your life story and I want to hear all about it. So share with our listeners a little bit about who you are, what your story is, and how that inspired the film. Well, you know, my my story is, about two different men, one up to age, 34 was just part of the world. The man from age 34 to today at 77. Is a born again Christian. And, you know, part of, another world. And so, the overlap of those, those two lives, is reflected, in the film and, my, my dad, you know, I had, actually the former CEO of K-Love radio stations. Oh, my God, so many years and years ago, he said this, this is going to be a movie, one of these days. His name was Bill Reeves. He said this. This will be a movie because, it's about daddy issues. Yeah. And he said everybody has them. And, so that for me, it was, I was I was raised by a man that love me very much, but, he brought his past experiences from World War two and the D-Day invasion and the battle of the bulge, into his ideal, training of, of a young man and how he felt like he should act and react in West Texas where, where I grew up. And so, I had a very violent upbringing and, the, you know, train up a child, that verse, has is a double edged sword. You know, it, depending on how you train him up as they get older, they're not going to depart from that. And so, I, I was a good person. I was not a troublemaker, but I became a trouble seeker because, I was very good at, at fighting, and I didn't mind getting here. I didn't think anybody would hit me as hard as my dad did. And so, in, in West Texas, you've got the roughnecks of the oil field, you've got cowboys, and then you got football. And so if you don't mind fighting, there'll be a lot of opportunities out there. And so, that was how my life, started out as, as a young man, my senior year in high school, at, Permian High School, we won state championship at the larger schools in Texas. And it was the first time that Permian won, a state championship. But it started that winning tradition and inspired the book in the subsequent movie, Friday Night Lights. And so, then I, received a full football scholarship to Sul Ross State University. And school is short for Sullivan. Sullivan Ross was a former governor of Texas, so Ross was about 100 miles from the Mexican border down in deep southwest Texas. And I was on full scholarship there. Sul Ross played in the Lone Star Conference, which was one of the premier conferences at that time in the nation. And, my sophomore and junior years, I had over 100 tackles each of those years. I had 24 tackles in one game. And my junior year, I was an all conference linebacker. I was, the, leading tackler on my team. And I was voted team captain. And so, coming back for my senior year, the coaches appointed me as, to monitor the rooms to make sure everyone was in at curfew as team captain. I would confront them if they weren't. And a couple of freshmen took exception to me telling them when they could and couldn't come and go. And, it got physical and one of them got hurt. And so, the president of the college was called, Dr. McNeill, called the head coach, and, he had me in his office the next morning, and he told me, he said, I've received a call from, doctor McNeill. And he said that he's heard my last name for the last time. He told me, he said, coach, that you are my player. Who's going to be. And he. So he said, Mike, I've got to ask you, not to be part of our team this year. And, all the players, they already had them out on the field. They didn't want me interacting with them. And so I asked him, I said, coach have. And he asked my teammates how they feel about this. And he said, I don't have to ask them. He said, I know how they feel about it. He said, but that's why they're out there. I don't want you interacting with them either. We've got assistant head coaches in your room packing your things. We want you out of town within the hour and, call my dad. He said, you've got to call him. And having made us on the highway, we'll take you half way to Odessa. And my dad said, you've been kicked out. For what? And I said, dad, I got in a fight, and, he started he jumped in and started cheering me out, and I just interrupted him. I said, daddy, I am exactly what you made me. And he never brought it up again. After that, after that day, I went on with my life, received, my degree and, met a beautiful young coed going to the University of Texas. We fell in love, got married, and we're almost 53 years now that we've been married. And, Eileen changed my whole life. She led me to faith in Christ. I became a strength and conditioning coach at the University of Nebraska, the University of Oregon, Texas A&M. And I always had a philosophy about my my coaching that I would never ask one of my athletes to do something that I wasn't willing to do myself. So I stayed in great shape, helping other people. And, I got out of coaching, found out that I still had a semester of eligibility left. Getting kicked off that team had come become my greatest regret in life. That team that had so much potential, they went 8-3 the year before, when I was a junior, we had everybody back. We were picked to win the Lone Star Conference. They went 4-6-1 after I was kicked out. So I shouldered that responsibility and I never shared it with anyone. I just, it became my greatest regret in life. And so, through happenstance, I found out that I still had a semester of eligibility left. And all those years after I quit coaching, I tell people that not not every journey has to have a destination. You know, if you've got a dream, move in that direction, do something. And I never quit running sprints. I didn't quit lifting. And, going through all the athletic things that I taught athletes to do when I was a strength coach. And so all of a sudden, I get an opportunity to try out for a team at 59 years old, I. Was like, gosh. Yeah, I was ready. And so by the grace of God, I was able to meet with the head coach. He listened to my story. And then I told him, I said, I'd like to walk onto this team as a as a linebacker because I feel like if I can make this team as a linebacker, I can help a bunch of young men that I don't even know. But for me, it makes up for those guys I let down all those years ago. And so I just need a chance to try. And so, I got that chance. And by the grace of God, I was able to make that team. Oh my gosh, what an incredible journey. I want to just kind of pause there for a minute because that's incredible. I mean, oftentimes in life we we do have these regrets. You know, we've, you know, before Christ, our life was different. And oftentimes we don't get that chance to go back and to maybe undo or, you know, redo those moments that we were carrying so much shame and guilt about. So this is incredible. So you got to play after all these years. And at the age of 59, that's incredible. So talk to us about the season. What was it like to be back on that field and having the love of Christ in your heart? How did that change how you played and how you interacted with your teammates? Well, the the, interaction with my teammates was it was really, it was something special because they had read all of the publicity. I mean, initially I thought, you know, who cares about an old man going back to play college football? Oh, man, how wrong I was about that. And, so the media showed up in, in force and the my, my teammates became so defensive of me, they got real upset when people would call me an old man, you know, you know, how young you play it. So was, is that where that old man's playing? Oh, man. They they got defensive about that. And, and so my, my time with them was, was super special because I had played the game at a very high level when I was young. And I've been blessed in that I never I was never hurt. And so I didn't have any baggage to bring back with me. And so when we put those helmets on, I went after them. And I don't expect them to cut me any slack either. And I did not, I didn't think there was going to be enough ice in Alpine, Texas to get through two-a-days. I see I never played football in a 59 year old body before. And oh my gosh, the soreness. I just I, you know, I just didn't think there was any way and and as the season wore on and the weather got colder I couldn't stop. I had to keep moving. And so, but they, they interact actually with my teammates that they could share things with me that they wouldn't share with anyone else. And then they begin to research my past, you know, they they begin to look back at when I was it saw us before. And, you know, one of them found out that I was a Lone Star player of the week and that I'd made 24 tackles in one game. And he said, how did you do that? What would you do? And so I was able to share with them the mind games that I learned from my dad, and things that I did that helped me in football. And so I was able to pass that, to pass that on to them. And it was, I would get calls from them on Sunday to come over at so-and-so's house, you know, to, to watch the game of the week, the NFL game of the week or something. They wanted me to be there with them and so, it was it was so rewarding. And, and just it was everything that I, I prayed that it might be if God would give me that opportunity. And he did, and I maximized it. I just, I didn't waste any of it. That's incredible. And during that time, you know, you were you were married, you had a family. What was it like for your family as they watched you kind of go through this, and relive this experience? What was it like for them? Eileen, our youngest daughter is just graduating from high school. She's going to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, so Eileen’s getting ready for orientation. Our two oldest children married, they're gone from home. And so we're empty nesters. We said we're going to downsize and we're gonna put our house on the market, you know? And we immediately had a contract on our house. We had 30 days. We had to get out. Eileen is involved in all of that. Yeah, she's ignoring me. She's thinking, well, the NCAA is going to tell him he's ineligible and he's going to get other coaches going laughing out of his office. Well, I come back from alpine and she's got a list of houses for us to go look at. And I said, Eileen, see, I had never shared with her. I had never told anyone the depth of regret that I had over the loss of, that senior year and letting those guys down and, she, she said we, we got we got to be out in three days. Michael, we, you know, this is serious. And I said, Eileen, we're going back to Texas. I'm going back to college, you know, or I'm going to play football. And she just she said, I cannot believe at 59 years old that you want to go back and try to play college football, she said, I feel like I'm married to Peter Pan and then I realized I never shared it with her. And I said her down and I said, you know, I've lived over half my life with regret over something that I did, and now coach is going to give me a chance to rewrite that last chapter in my athletic career. And I said, I may not make the team, I may not make it, but I've got to try for me to have the opportunity and not try. For me, that'd be worse than getting kicked out the first time. And to live the rest of my life wondering what if? What if I could have made that team? I've got to try? And she said, okay, wow, I never knew. She said, if the she was on the other foot. I know that, you do the same for me, so let's go play football. So, you know, she got on board our children, my daughters, they were, you know, my biggest cheerleaders, my son, not so much. He was more practical. He was saying, you know, dad, you know, you just you can't get risk this. You can't. What if. What if you end up in a wheelchair or worse? What about mom? You know, and so, you know, we had to deal with that. But he came on board. And so, you know, my family was, they were 100% behind me, and, you know, I couldn't have done it without them, but, they were there. That is incredible, I love that. So how did this how did your story end up becoming this film that Angel Studios and all the rest are involved in? Like, how did it how did you make that leap to getting this on the big screen? Well, it was, you know, it was one of those things that, I was told again and again, this is going to be a movie. There's going to be a book and a movie. And I thought, no, there's no way that that's just not going to happen. And that was never on my radar. You know, for me, it was all about helping those young man, you know, to make up for those guys that I let down and so feeling. And I have to just tell this part of it because it's not in the movie. 26 of my former teammates from that 1971 team came back to watch me play at home. Wow. And we met on the 50 yard line, had a group hug, and, they told me, we keep hearing where you said that you've let us down. All those years ago, we knew that it wasn't your fault and we never blamed you for that. And besides, look, because you came back to play, we're all back together again. And so God, in his mercy, allowed me to receive that forgiveness that I needed from those former teammates to to overcome that greatest regret. And so when the when the movie people started coming in March you already, Secretariat, Miracle on Ice, The Rookie, Invincible, you know, all those great sports movies. He came back and he told me, he said this, this is, this has got to be on the big screen. And so that started a journey that you know, again, it's been 18 years, but, it's one of those things where when you've never prayed for something like that, you never ask God for something like that, and it just comes along. It's kind of a bonus for the other things that he's answered for you. Then you embrace it. And so I wanted to do everything I could. And so, but I one thing I did when the studio sent me the contract, my attorney said, this is great, this looks good. I said, okay, I want you to add a clause in this contract that they will not take the Lord's name in vain, and they will not use the name of Jesus in a disrespectful manner. And he said, he said, Mike, you're going to blow this deal. And I said, why? And he said, because this is Hollywood. You're taking away their creative license when you do that. And I said, well, put it put that in the contract. He called me back and he said, they signed it. He's the one who signed it. They're ready to go. So you know that, we it's it's a PG film. There is no language in it. And, for the most part, it's, it's true. There are some things in there that are Hollywood, but, you know, you know, for the most part, it's, it's a true story. That is incredible. I love that, and you've got some pretty incredible actors and actresses that are in the film. So who, who is actually cast as you in this film? Well, Michael Chiklis, Oh my goodness. Yes. Yeah. The Thing, or The Shield, the TV series, you know. And hey, this guy was, amazing. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I just, you know, I couldn't believe we were there for the whole filming. Eileen and I were there for the, you know, the 52 days that they filmed for the movie and, lot of interaction with so many of the people. There were probably 150 or 180 people total all around during this process moving. And it was filmed during football season. And so we had five different stadiums that we had, jockeyed between because, you know, games and things were going on practices. So, but, that whole, the whole group, Mary Stuart Masterson playing Eileen, and she was incredible. Rob Corddry plays, the coach, you know, and, you know, the whole cast we have, we have so many young actors that Michael Chiklis was mentoring these young actors. But you, you're just the the performance that these young actors make. It's incredible. We were so impressed. Oh, my gosh, he was just, he was just amazing. And so we are so pleased with, Angel Studios, everything that they've done, the actors that were involved and the effort that they put forth, it was, for us, it was a God thing, the whole thing. That is incredible. And I love the fact that this movie is really a story that so many are going to relate to, and maybe even be able to see the story of redemption and the story of forgiveness and and our Lord and Savior through the film, because, I mean, people that are not Christians may go see this film, and it is so moving that they're going to walk away feeling something. And I'm sure your hope is to lead people to Christ that don't have a relationship with him. And how does it how does it feel to know that you may have that kind of impact through this film, through your story and being willing to share that with the world? Oh, that, that would be, a dream come true. You know, when I went back to play, there were there was so much publicity and men would walk up to me. It was mostly men and sometimes women, and they would recognize me, and the men would offer to shake hands and say, are you Mike? And, I said, yeah, and I'd have to ask them their name, then tell me their age. I'm 62 or I'm 57. And so they start telling me about things that they were doing because I was following my dream and my heart. And so they were trying they were thinking, hey, if Mike can do that, so can I. And so at every opportunity I would try to share my faith and, you know, I just wanted people to know because so many people have regrets in life. And say, you can't change the past. I knew that I couldn't go back and undo what I had done, but for me, I could change the meaning of that past by doing something positive for those young men that I didn't know and helping them. For me, it was a substitute for those guys that I let down, and so I was able to focus on helping someone right now, today, to make up for what I've done in the past. And God honored that. And as I said, I received the forgiveness from those former teammates that, they just put it over the top. And so. Yeah, it, the whole story, you know, is, is Christ centered and it's but it's done in such a way that I hope millions of non-Christians go see it, because everybody loves football. Yes. Yeah. And. And so, it's just a great a great backdrop. And, you're going to love the acting in it. It's amazing. It's incredible. When does the film come out so people can get their tickets and, preview the film? September 19th and, thousands of theaters all over the nation. So awesome. September 19th. The Senior. The Senior. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Mike, for sharing your story, your testimony. I know so many are going to be reached with this film and hopefully inspired, led to the Lord and just leaving the film like a good wholesome story that really just, you know, I think is going to move people's hearts and maybe, you know, give some people some inspiration that they need to to do something. Maybe they thought they never could do. I just I'm so excited for this film to come out. Thank you for joining us today. Oh, Karen, thank you so much for having me. Of course, of course. Thank you to all of our listeners for joining this episode of The Covenant Eyes Podast. Take care. God bless.