The League is an American television sitcom that aired on FX and later FXX from October 29, 2009, to December 9, 2015, for a total of seven seasons. The series, set in Chicago, is a semi-improvised comedy show about a fantasy football league, its members, and their everyday lives.
Premise Set in Chicago, the series revolves around six friends who participate in a fantasy football league. The show follows the friends, who would do anything to win, while also dealing with the after effects of their pranks and often dangerous antics they perform on one another.
Episodes
Cast
Main characters Mark Duplass as Peter "Pete" Eckhart: Three-time league champion who separates from his wife Meegan (Leslie Bibb) in the pilot episode. Several episodes revolve around his interaction with women. Pete is known for tricking his gullible friends (particularly Taco and Andre) into making poor fantasy-football trades they call "trade rapes." He works in a cubicle in sales, avoiding doing actual work as much as possible, though in the season 5 episode "The Automatic Faucet" he declares he is done with fantasy football and focuses solely on work—except for when he helps his boss set up a team for an office project much like he did with his fantasy-football lineup, which actually earns him a promotion. In Season 7, he becomes a referee. He creates, and is commissioner of, the "Sacko", the "worst-team" trophy created during the episode "The Reunion". He still holds the North Winnetka High School pole-vault record. He once got a "Fear Boner" when he bought Chicago Bears tickets from a man in the park. In the series finale, Pete wins $1 million and retires into the sunset, winning the beach house. It is also revealed that Pete, not Andre, is the father of Meegan's child. Nick Kroll as Rodney Ruxin: A Jewish product-liability attorney, he is just as ruthless and obnoxious in the League as he is in the courtroom. He "out-kicked his coverage" with his wife Sofia, so goes to great lengths to please her. He is constantly torn between his need to please her and his desire to crush his League opponents. In many episodes, and all of season 3, Ruxin is extremely paranoid, often thinking that his opponents are "trying to get into his head", or that other League members are "in collusion" to cheat him, but his paranoid hunches have been correct at least twice: in "Expert Witness" and "The Lockout." In "The Bounce Test," he describes his own appearance: "I look like a Nazi propaganda cartoon of a Jew." He and Sofia have a son named Geoffrey ("Baby Geoffrey"). He hates being called Rodney, preferring to be called Ruxin; his sister Rebecca (Lizzy Caplan) calls him the "Rod-Man" and Taco sometimes calls him "Ruspin," two nicknames he finds equally unfavorable. He wins the season-2 League championship. In high school his reputation for dating large women earned him the nickname "The Herdsman." He inherited his sarcastic nature from his father Rupert (Jeff Goldblum), who also prefers to be called Ruxin. After catching Kevin in his "clown car of lies," he declares season 3 to be null and void and claims himself winner via default after miraculously healing (upon catching sight of Shiva) from the after-effects of a stress-induced stroke from discovering the collusion. He then agrees that the events of season 3 of the TV show—season 7 of their actual League-—would count in exchange for becoming the new league commissioner—and for the naming rights to Kevin and Jenny's newborn, which he trades to Taco for his #1 draft pick. He is commissioner only in season 4. Ruxin is a graduate of Northwestern University. Katie Aselton as Jenny MacArthur (née Banger): Kevin's wife, who helps him run his team and has as much enthusiasm for the League as the actual members do during season 1. When Kevin loses a bet to Pete in season 1, Jenny is forced to streak since she is clearly the manager for Kevin's team. In season 2, Jenny wants her own team for the League, but the members vote to give the vacant spot to Ruxin's brother-in-law Rafi; angered, Jenny seeks revenge by helping Ruxin draft instead. She is introduced into the League during that season to replace Rafi and eventually loses to Ruxin's team in the Shiva Bowl. Her foul mouth is well equal to Kevin's and their daughter Ellie already takes after them. At the end of Season 3, she tells Kevin that their second child is on the way. She gives birth to their son in the Season-4 premiere. She defeats Andre in Season 5's Shiva Bowl. Paul Scheer as Dr. Andre Nowzick: A bald, rich plastic surgeon whose naïveté makes him the brunt of many jokes. He wears what he believes to be trendy clothing, for which his friends mercilessly mock him. He tries to be cool by using current slang, particularly the jargon of hip-hop culture, but his friends constantly rebuke him, as do others, such as professional football player Chad Johnson. Andre wins the Shiva at the end of season 1 after entering a committed relationship with Shivakamini Somakandarkram (the namesake of the League trophy). In the season-2 premiere, Andre renames the trophy "the Dre"; the others quickly rename it "the SheDre." The worship of a false god in "the Dre" results in bad luck, which is nicknamed "DrAIDS." This results in the worst record in the League and he quickly falls from first to worst. As the Sacko recipient, he receives innumerable punishments that range from embarrassing to cruel. For instance, in season 3 he's locked out of his apartment while Dirty Randy (Seth Rogen) creates a low-budget porno based loosely on Andre's life. Andre's sister Heather (Sarah Silverman) has had sex with everyone in the League except Andre, Jenny, and Ruxin. Andre was engaged to his interior decorator Trixie Von Stein (Jayma Mays) but their wedding was sabotaged by the League. He also starts a winebar, Menage a Cinq, with fellow League member Russell, but Russell's sex addiction spoils things. In season 7, Andre dates, then marries, Pete's ex-wife Meegan. Stephen Rannazzisi as Kevin MacArthur: An assistant district attorney and Pete's best friend, Kevin is the league commissioner from Seasons 1–3. He returns to commissioner in season 5. Because he has difficulty competing in the league on his own, he often takes football knowledge from his wife Jenny; the rest of the League teases him incessantly for this. Jenny eventually joins the League herself, replacing Ruxin's brother-in-law Rafi. At the series' beginning, he has never won the Shiva, the award given to the League winners (named after Shivakamini Somakandarkram, a high-school classmate to whom Kevin lost his virginity). In college, he got a "Fear Boner" when he thought he was about to be mugged by somebody who was only asking for directions. Kevin wins in the season-3, but Ruxin declares the entire season null because of collusion and lies, until Kevin agrees to give Ruxin the commissioner role and naming rights to his newborn. Kevin has been "highnotized" (hypnotized under the influence of marijuana) by his brother Taco, which causes Kevin to faint if Taco says the word "pumpernickel." Jenny and Pete have also similarly programmed Kevin, Jenny by using dog-training techniques and Pete by clicking a retractable ballpoint pen. Kevin has a young daughter named Ellie whose foul mouth comes from her parents, and a son born in Season 4's first episode and named Chalupa Batman by his Uncle Taco, but renamed Christopher Benjamin by his parents in the next episode. Rafi, Ruxin's brother-in-law, constantly calls him 'Brian' instead of Kevin. Jon Lajoie as Taco MacArthur: Kevin's younger brother, a perpetually stoned, unemployed musician. He does not care or know much about American football; he attempts to draft Canadian football players and tends to draft placekickers. He has won the League championship at least once, in 2006, evident by his handwritten name on the trophy. He hooks up with women easily, and lives via handouts from Kevin and his "Eskimo family tree" (people who have slept with women he has slept with), and making his own food (thousand-year-old eggs) and personal-hygiene products, like deodorant. He also makes ringtones (Horse Orgasm or, "Horsegasm"). He takes martial arts, specializing in use of a naginata (a long pole with a blade at the end) and studies of naginatajutsu. He means well but his acts of kindness usually have disastrous results. He is perhaps the most emotional member of the league, prone to crying when his feelings are hurt. In the unrated version of season 1, Ruxin claimed that the reason Taco is such a "frittata" is because they made him smoke marijuana when he was 8. Between seasons 2 and 3, Taco travels around the world and becomes a soap-opera star in Algeria playing a stupid American. He enjoys keeping "guest bongs" in all of his friends' homes for him to use. In season 4, it's revealed that he owns the domain name dallascowboys.com, which Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones purchases for $250,000. In Season 5 he turns his dead uncle's van into multiple unsuccessful small businesses. It is also revealed that when he is not high he is actually very intelligent, probably the most intelligent member of the League. In season 6, his Eskimo-Brother DataBase ends up making him a lot of money and he starts other business ventures after Mark Cuban buys it from him for $1.1 million.
Recurring characters Nadine Velazquez as Sofia Ruxin, Ruxin's Latina wife. She has a close friendship with Taco, which Ruxin cannot stand. She dies while undergoing vaginal rejuvenation in Puerto Rico. Jason Mantzoukas as Rafi, Sofia's deranged, obnoxious brother, aka "Bro-lo el Cuñado." Best friend and possible lover of porn director Dirty Randy. He shared a bed with Sofia until she was 18. He was an altar boy as a child, but had to quit after he raped a priest. He always calls Pete "Tall Guy" and believes Kevin's name is Brian. His residence has a large number of "load-bearing chairs" stacked up and has a "toilet-kitchen." Rafi stores a never-ending supply of hotdogs in his pants, referring to them as "pocket dogs." He is a diabetic. He gets "murder boners" when practicing his MMA skills and gets a "war boner" when playing paintball. He thinks that he is Baby Geoffrey's true father. Occasionally he has suggested that he and Sofia shared an incestuous relationship in the past (not directly denied by Sofia). Many times when he vomits, he defecates; many times when he defecates, he orgasms. Ruxin's sarcasm led him to take on the role of Bobbum Man in real life. He is apparently killed by Dirty Randy in a duel. In Season 6's "When Rafi Met Randy," it is revealed Rafi was once a normal family man until Randy's business partner fell to his death on top of Rafi's wife and two sons, killing them all. After numerous suicide attempts, Rafi was checked into a mental asylum along with Randy. An overzealous nurse subjected them both to shock therapy that would alter their minds and result in their current deranged states. Immediately after Randy revealed that he was responsible for the deaths of Rafi's family, Rafi was subjected to a partial lobotomy that made him forget them completely. It is also revealed how Rafi was returned to life via special means. Alina Foley as Ellie MacArthur, Jenny and Kevin's young daughter. She has inherited her parents' profane language, which got her in trouble with her first grade teacher, Ms. Martin.