Is All American Based on a True Story? How a Former NFL Player Inspired the Series

The series All American is inspired by the true story of former NFL player Spencer Paysinger.

The CW series, which first aired in 2018, follows Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), a star football player at South Crenshaw High School who transfers to Beverly Hills High after being recruited by the team’s coach, Billy Baker (Taye Diggs).

When Spencer moves in with Billy and his family, he experiences a clash of worlds. Over the course of the series, tensions arise as Spencer struggles with his role at school, in his family, and in his community. Although dramatized at times, All American is inspired by the true story of Paysinger, a former New York Giants linebacker who became a producer on the show.

Reflection on the pilot episode of an episode of the In the zone In a May 2023 podcast, he explained how creative liberties were taken with the script and plot. “That whole experience was so crazy because there are definitely things in the pilot, sometimes they’re word for word like what happened in real life,” Paysinger said.

He continued: “There are certain moments in the pilot that I wrote, that I changed, so to see them play out on a grand scale like that and then people really like it, it’s something that completely redefined what I wanted in my life.”

This is the true story of All Americanincluding who Spencer Paysinger is and how he inspired the series.

Who is Spencer Paysinger?

Spencer Paysinger is a former NFL player whose life inspired The CW series All American.

Much like Spencer’s character on the show, Paysinger grew up in South Los Angeles and attended Beverly Hills High School. He played football at Beverly Hills High School before heading to the University of Oregon, where he continued playing the sport and graduated with a degree in economics in 2010.

Paysinger was not drafted by the NFL but signed with the New York Giants as a free agent in 2011. He played for the Giants from 2011 to 2014 and helped the team win Super Bowl XLVI in his first year. Paysinger eventually joined the Miami Dolphins for two seasons.

In 2017, he signed with the New York Jets, but was released before the start of the season. Paysinger then finished his career with the Carolina Panthers, with whom he played three games before being released and retiring.

Reflecting on his decision, Paysinger revealed that he was eager to explore different opportunities inspired by his love of film. “I remember sitting in my locker that day, packing all my stuff, smiling,” he told ESPN. “I never wanted football to be my highest point.”

In retirement, the former linebacker focused on more creative projects, including production. All AmericanAccording to a press release from Northwest Missouri State University, Paysinger had pitched the idea for the show in the months before he left the field.

East All American a true story?

All American is loosely based on Paysinger’s life, although several aspects of his experiences were changed in the series.

In April 2020, Paysinger told the New England Sports Network that “a lot of the stories are rooted in truth.” He explained, “Obviously, to create a compelling CW show, we have to kind of bend the truth a little bit and deviate from what originally happened. But for the most part, a lot of the stories ring true.”

Some notable changes between Paysinger’s real life and All American There’s also his football career. Although he transferred to Beverly Hills High School on the show, he was actually enrolled in a multicultural program for four years in real life. Other changes include Spencer’s college of choice on the show and a gang-related shooting that nearly left him unable to play football, which didn’t happen off-screen.

Additionally, there has been speculation that the characters in the series are based on real people from Paysinger’s life. He explained that there were a “handful of characters” who were portrayed as “one-for-one in real life,” while others were an “amalgamation of different people from his past.” However, one character in particular was directly inspired by a real-life figure in his life: Diggs’ character, Billy.

“Billy Baker is loosely based on my uncle Carter Paysinger, who was the head football coach at Beverly Hills High School when I came to Beverly,” Paysinger said. “He was a mentor back then, and to this day, I look to him for guidance.”

Paysinger said his uncle, who has been a coach for more than three decades, often sent him notes on Diggs’ performances. “It was interesting to get a real coach’s perspective on coaching Taye Diggs,” he said.

Paysinger attributed much of the series’ success and the translation of its story to the screen to a “tremendous process of trust” with the series’ showrunner, Nkechi Okoro Carroll.

“I talk to him a lot in the writers’ room and give them a treasure trove of stories from my past that I trust to take and shape into the stories that you see on television,” he told PIX11 News in March 2021. “Initially, three years ago, when they took those stories and changed them, I was like, ‘Wait, that’s not exactly how it happened.’ But that’s part of the creative freedom that goes into creating a compelling show.”

Was Spencer Paysinger involved in the creation All American?

Paysinger played a role in the creation of All American, and serves as a consulting producer on the series. In an April 2020 interview with the New England Sports Network, he spoke about his passion for film growing up, which inspired him to start writing short stories and eventually led to the creation of the series.

The idea of All American was born in 2015 when Paysinger was introduced to film producer Dane Morck, ESPN At the time, Morck asked Paysinger what it was like growing up in Beverly Hills, to which the NFL player corrected him and shared his story of growing up in South Los Angeles. According to Paysinger, he dealt with violence in his neighborhood while being surrounded by affluent students at school.

Paysinger eventually got a call from producer Robbie Rogers, who was then engaged to television producer Greg Berlanti. He then met with Warner Bros., and during their second meeting, The CW bought the rights to the show. In 2018, the pilot of All American was shot and everything changed.

With All American, Paysinger had one main goal: to dispel stereotypes about the city center.

“I wanted to tell a story about someone who is a lot more like themselves than you might think,” he explained. “Being from South Central and knowing how South Central is portrayed in Hollywood as this desolate area with gang violence, drugs, all that stuff — they need to understand that the sun shines there as long as it shines in Beverly Hills.”

He added: “What I want viewers to see is that South Central is also a beautiful place. It’s a wonderful place. It’s a place that I still call home today. I think we’ve managed to achieve that.”

Speaking to CBS News In October 2018, ahead of the show’s premiere, Paysinger shared more details about his involvement in the project.

“I’ve had the luxury of being a consulting producer and going into the writers’ room a couple of days a week, and being on set as often as I want,” he said. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I retired from football, so I’m taking advantage of it as much as I can and being there as often as I can.”

In addition to his role as a producer, Paysinger has also flexed his acting chops, making a cameo appearance in early seasons as an assistant coach to Diggs’ character. He jokingly described himself as an “Easter egg in the show” to PIX11 News in March 2021.

“I’m having fun with it. I’ve had a few lines in the last couple of seasons, but who knows,” he said. “I’m not necessarily going into acting, this year has been the year of yes for me.”

Although Paysinger had some lines in the series’ second installment, he told the New England News Network in April 2020 that he had been in the background since the first episode of Season 1.

“As more and more people became familiar with this show, it became fun to have Coach Davis in the background,” he said. “But when we were thinking about who to cast, what to cast, the executive producers, they literally turned to me and my producing partner Dane Morck and said, ‘Hey, do you guys want to be Taye Diggs’ assistant coaches at Beverly High?’”

Where is Spencer Paysinger today?

Apart from his work on All American, Paysinger continued his life after the NFL as an entrepreneur, while helping to build and improve his community.

His bio on The CW states that he is a co-owner of Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen, which has several locations in Los Angeles, and that he is on the board of directors for KIPP’s Black and Latino Public Schools Leadership Committee. Paysinger also helps manage the Afterball LLC investment fund, which helps former football players pursue new ventures after their playing days.

As for his personal life, Paysinger married his wife, Blair, in May 2016. The couple are parents to two young children: a daughter, Cairo, and a son, Madden.

They met in high school when Blair was a freshman at Beverly Hills High School, leading some fans to wonder if she inspired Spencer’s love interest on All American.

In a May 2021 appearance on the Black love After the show, she mentioned that she did not initially remember when their paths first crossed, although Paysinger did recall and said there was a “build-up” to their eventual relationship.

“I played on the same soccer team as his older brother,” he says. “That summer, everyone was like, ‘Hey, Alex’s little sister is coming. She’s cute.’ So when I saw her, I was like, ‘That must be Alex’s sister.’ And that’s why I remember it, because it was like an anticipation of him coming to school.”