Trivia: Simon Pegg didn't know that the Hank Azaria was actually going to completely undress, so his shocked reaction is entirely real.
Trivia: At the end of the movie the match commentator gives the following speech: "Guards of Pentonville, guards of Wandsworth, Walton nick in Liverpool, policemen of Britain, traffic wardens and parole officers, wheel clampers, your boys have taken a hell of a beating today. A hell of a beating." This speech is a direct reference to Norwegian sports commentator Bjørge Lillelien who made British headlines, when Norway in 1981 beat England out of the world cup qualifier.
Trivia: Paul Newman won his only Oscar for his performance as Fast Eddie Felson in this movie.
Trivia: John Henshaw, who plays the Man Utd loving father of Gordon, is actually a lifelong fan of Manchester City FC, and held a season ticket at Maine Road, where the schools' cup final in the film was held.
Trivia: Kirsten Dunst improvised the scene where she hears Cliff's track.
Trivia: Director Oliver Stone makes a cameo as sportscaster.
Trivia: Bob Uecker says Adams could be called for necessary roughness. "Necessary Roughness" was a film Scott Bakula starred in.
Trivia: In the movie, Lou Gehrig concludes his farewell speech with the famous line "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth". However, in real life, he continued after this point. The last lines of his speech were "And I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."
Trivia: The director's family stars as extras in the movie. For example, when Pinky and Teets are getting engaged, just before the cell phone rings, a person is shown in a close up. That is the director's aunt. Even the director is shown at the party after the engagement.
Trivia: In the film, Hurricane Carter is shown as having published a book called "The Sixteenth Round." This book, as well as parts of Sam Chaiton's (played in the film by Liev Schreiber) book "Lazarus and the Hurricane," is what the film is adapted from.
Trivia: The punch that Bull Hurley gave Hawk during the final match that made his nose bleed was real. Stallone told the guy to do it since he was the director but didn't give him a "cue point" in which to do it. Meaning Stallone never knew when it was going to happen so that his reaction would be authentic to the hit. Stallone stated that he took more punishment in trying to be authentic in this movie by taking actual hits such as this one and arm-wrestling professionals that were hired for the film, than he did in any of the Rocky movies.
Trivia: When the girls arrive at the beach at the beginning of the movie, they observe somebody who's getting worked by a HUGE wave. As he gets out of the water, they comment on him "he hit the reef" - "that's gotta hurt". This was not fake: The guy who did this REALLY got hurt that way and almost lost his eyeball.
Trivia: The free-kick goal scored by Santiago (actor) against Liverpool in the movie was actually scored by the real Newcastle United player Laurent Robert in the real game against Liverpool which won them the game 1-0.
Trivia: There are only 500 balls placed on the wall in Stan's, enclosed in a glass case behind the bar. The crew kept on moving the panels depending on the shot needed.
Trivia: Rollerball is referred to as "sports entertainment," which is the current euphemism for professional wrestling.
