Danny O'Shea (Rick Moranis) was always the last kid picked when it came to just about anything, but especially in football. This fact was always made worse by the fact that his brother, Kevin, wasn't just Kevin, he was the great Kevin O'Shea (Ed O'Neill), who won the Heisman Trophy in college and had an amazing career.
Now he's a car salesman, but he's still the great Kevin O'Shea, and his Cowboys are the team to be on. When Danny's daughter Becky, also know as The Icebox (Shawna Waldron) is denied a spot on the team, everyone knows it is because she is a girl. After all, The Icebox is the best player in town - what else could it be?
Things only get worse when Becky tells everyone that her dad is going to show them all, because he's putting together his own football team - a fact that she hasn't told him (or anyone else) yet. When Kevin gets word of what's happening, he confronts Danny, and that leads to Danny agreeing to do it, both because Kevin doesn't want him to do it and because Becky wants him to.
Once the team is formed, they have to actually get some players - something easier said than done. But picking up all the kids left off of the Cowboys eventually yields a few players. They just aren't the cream of the crop. These are the ones that no one ever picks. And you know that they will probably end up winning, you just have no idea how that's going to happen.
Then one day the kids are in the store when they see Junior (a young Devon Sawa) throwing rolls of toilet paper into the shopping cart, and they know they've found themselves a quarterback. They don't have much else, but at least it's a start, and along with The Icebox, it's better than nothing.
When Danny and Kevin each get calls from the guys who sit around playing checkers about a kid who just moved to town and wants to play football, a race between them results in Danny getting him to play on the Little Giants - at least until his dad figures out that while Danny is indeed "Coach O'Shea", he isn't Coach Kevin O'Shea - but while it happens, Spike (the kid) and Becky determine that they don't like each other much.
Just as everything seems lost, the kids on the Giants run into John Madden and some NFL players on their way to a game, and they get a much-needed pep talk about intimidation, and it looks like they might just do okay after all. Then the game starts.
The first half goes about as badly as it can, but at the end of it, the Giants are only down by three touchdowns. Kevin gives Danny a chance to quit, but rather than doing so, they end up betting their business against the remainder of the game, and you just know how it will work out. To make matters worse, Becky has decided she wants to be a cheerleader to impress Junior.
As the second half starts, the Giants show some signs of life, and then Spike takes a cheap shot at Junior, which just makes Becky mad, so she comes out steaming, and then it's on. With only a few seconds left, the Giants are tied and make a goal-line stand to hold. But with the ball on their own end zone, will their secret play, The Annexation of Puerto Rico, work to give them the win? You'll have to watch to find out. But I suspect you already know the answer.
Rated PG for crude humor.
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