A former professional football quarterback, disgraced and struggling with life after his career, finds himself in a serious predicament following a night of drunken revelry. He ends up arrested and sentenced to serve time in a state prison run by a corrupt and football-crazed warden. The warden learns of the inmate's football history and, hoping to boost his own reputation, makes him an offer: to organize a team of prisoners to play a warm-up game against the semi-pro guards' team. The proposition appears to be a one-sided affair intended to boost the morale of the guards and demonstrate their dominance over the inmates.

Assembling a group of convicts with varying backgrounds and temperaments, the protagonist faces the daunting challenge of turning them into a cohesive football team. Tensions and hostilities are rampant, with deep distrust between the inmates and aggressive behavior from the guards. Despite the oppressive environment and personal demons, the former quarterback begins to instill in his rag-tag team a sense of pride and purpose. The prisoners rally around their newfound camaraderie but are constantly aware that the warden and his guards have their own set of rules, aiming to ensure the prisoners' defeat at any cost.