![]() ![]() Ryan lost that game by eight points, but it still provided Loughran something to brag about 30 years later on a movie set. That explains why Silary described Loughran two months later as having a “riverboat gambler’s temperament” when he listed him among the city’s top football recruits. Afterward, Loughran told Silary that the opposing quarterback was a really good player but “runs like he’s afraid to get hit.” ![]() Loughran picked off the pass and ran 45 yards for the score. The other play Silary loved was an interception that Loughran returned for a touchdown in a loss to Central Bucks West. ![]() One was against Bishop Egan when I hit a guy in the backfield on a fourth-and-1 and helped win the game.” I had a couple big plays that I think had him take notice of me. “There was a guy named Ted Silary he was a legend,” said Loughran of the longtime Daily News high school sportswriter. But Loughran downplays his football career, crediting a sportswriter for helping him appear better than he was. He was an All-Catholic and All-City defensive back at Ryan and was elected to the school’s football Hall of Fame. He was a role player - almost like his place in a Sandler movie, Loughran said - but those teams coached by neighborhood stalwarts Neil Brassell and Al Panebianco created memories to make a childhood. Anselm’s basketball team that won a CYO state title and his Far Northeast team that won the city championship. Loughran came off the bench in seventh grade for his St. Even if I’m not acting in the movie, just hanging on set with these legendary people has been pretty cool.” “I mean, look at the list of people who I’ve been able to be in scenes with or in movies with. He was practically playing himself, but that still didn’t make the guy whose career almost never began not feel nervous about being on set with Nicholson. Loughran’s character wore an Iverson jersey and listened to a Sixers broadcast during group therapy before being calmed down by Jack Nicholson. “He gave me a love of sports and was the type of guy who would see a celebrity and I’d get excited and he’d say ‘Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t look out the window if he was in our backyard.'”Ī loss often made Loughran so irate that Sandler wrote a role for him in 2003’s “Anger Management” as a crazed Philly sports fan. “My dad was a tough guy and known for it,” said Loughran as his father played football at Roman Catholic and was related to boxing Hall of Famer and world champion Tommy Loughran from South Philly. He bonded over sports with his father, Jim, who died in 2017 and rooted against the Eagles each week since all his bettors had their money on the home team. No matter where he is, Loughran calls his mother, Helen, before kickoff of each Birds game. That was incredible to talk to him and that he knew who I was.” “I’ve met so many people with Adam and everybody wants a picture with Adam, so I’ve seen that and I’ve learned to not really bother anyone or ask for pictures with anyone,” Loughran said. how loud the arena was when the 76ers won the Eastern Conference title in 2001. His preferred pair of dress socks features a caricature of Allen Iverson and he recently had the chance on a Zoom call to tell A.I. Paparazzi photos of Sandler often feature Loughran in the background wearing an Eagles hat. Loughran watched the Eagles win the Super Bowl in the darkness of his California bedroom, needing to retreat from the party his wife threw as the nerves set in. J’s hand after scoring 22 points in a CYO game at the Spectrum and celebrated the Sixers’ 1983 title by running onto Roosevelt Boulevard with his buddies. He loved Steve Carlton, Jerome Brown, and Moses Malone. Loughran’s years in California have helped him almost shake his Philly accent - Sandler teases him for the way he says “bagel” and Loughran has to think before saying “water” - but he has not lost his devotion to the teams he grew up rooting for. I wasn’t the toughest guy, but I think growing up there gave me a toughness that I’ve been able to deal with a lot of things thrown my way in this business and life and be able to shake things off. Northeast Philly was a unique place growing up and I carry that with me everywhere. “Growing up in the Northeast shaped me,” Loughran said. He grew up in a rowhouse, attended Catholic schools, and was raised in a middle-class neighborhood. His father was a car salesman and a bookie and his mother was a stay-at-home mom and a bartender. Loughran was a football and basketball player at Ryan. But it seems like there’s a lot of people who watch Adam’s movies and they watch them over and over again and they come to like the guys he puts in.” We travel around and I always say, ‘I’m semi-famous.’ A lot of times Adam is signing autographs, someone will ask me for an autograph, and someone will say ‘Who is that guy?’ They have no idea who I am. ![]()
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