Playmakers grows on a viewer in the most important way a good television series should: by encouraging curiosity about the growth and fate of key characters. One might easily dismiss this ESPN original drama as a mere catalog of the problems that dog some professional football players, very often to public scrutiny: injuries, drugs, egos, criminal associations, etc. But patience rewards those who watch enough of Playmakers's 11 episodes to care about the humanity of the show's troubled athletes. The series concerns NFL contenders the Cougars, led by a hard but fair coach (Anthony John Denison) suffering from prostate cancer while dealing with a treacherous team owner (Bruce Gray), a problematic prima donna (Omar Gooding), and mid-ranked players struggling with fundamentals of the game.