Browns edge Bills for Kevin Costner football comedy

By Larry Hartstein | CBSSports.com

Sports fan Kevin Costner takes in a Knicks game last year. (Getty Images)
Sports fan Kevin Costner takes in a Knicks game last year. (USATSI)

Draft Day is billed as a football comedy in which a general manager -- played by Kevin Costner, working at least his sixth sports movie -- searches for players who can turn around a troubled franchise.

The Browns or Bills sound totally believable. According to the Buffalo News, Cleveland rallied late to swipe the project from Buffalo.

“I think Mr. [Ivan] Reitman really wanted to shoot here, but it just came down to the cost factor,” Tim Clark, who leads the Buffalo Niagara Film Commission, told the paper. “What we were told is that the Cleveland incentives were better.

“I feel worse for the Buffalo Bills because they worked real hard to convince the film company that Buffalo was the place to shoot this, and that Buffalo was America's team.”

The Bills are "America's Team?" Must have missed that.

Reitman, the director, toured Ralph Wilson Stadium last month and seemed excited about shooting the movie in Buffalo, Clark told the paper. But despite incentives from New York State, it ended up being $3 million cheaper to film in Cleveland, a source told the paper.

So now we get Kevin Costner playing Mike Lombardi.

The movie is expected to start shooting in late spring or early summer.

For more NFL news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnNFL on Twitter, subscribe to our RSS Feed, watch Pro Football 360 daily at 3 ET and NFL newsletter. You can also follow Larry Hartstein @LarryHartstein.

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