Superman star David Corenswet grew up in Philadelphia loving the Eagles, but that didn’t stop him from saying yes to donning a Giants jersey for the upcoming biopic, Mr. Irrelevant.
The 33-year-old actor — who got his start on local stages as a kid — became a breakout movie star last year when he played Superman in James Gunn’s revamp of the legendary superhero films. While the sequel, Man of Tomorrow, releases in summer 2027, Corenswet’s next project is based on a true story that follows underdog football player John Tuggle.
Mr. Irrelevant, named because Tuggle was the last pick of 1983 NFL draft, was written by Reacher creator/producer Nick Santora and will be out in theaters Dec. 25. In a promotional video that dropped Wednesday, Corenswet admitted that he initially had doubts about the role because of his Eagles allegiance, but he soon realized the story was bigger than football fandom — and Tuggle had a connection to Philadelphia of his own, too.
David Corenswet as John Tuggle in “Mr. Irrelevant” from Paramount Pictures.Clay Enos
“As a kid from Philadelphia, I thought it would be a hard sell to get me to wear a Giants jersey on the big screen,” said Corenswet. “When I learned that John Tuggle scored his only professional touchdown against Philadelphia in Philadelphia, I thought, ‘This would really be a terrible betrayal,’ you know? What would Bradley Cooper think of me?”
“But when I saw the footage of that play, when I saw John dive into that kelly green end zone, the fans cheered,” Corenswet continued. “The same fans that booed Santa Claus cheered for a New York Giant scoring six on their turf. Why? Because for that moment, John Tuggle wasn’t a New York Giant, he was Mr. Irrelevant. He was the guy who was never supposed to make it.”
Tuggle was a rookie from California who played just one season with the Giants as a running back before he was diagnosed with cancer. After two years of extensive treatment, he died at age 25 in 1986. His story was explored in the 2018 ESPN 30 for 30 short film, The Irrelevant Giant.
‘Mr. Irrelevant’ will be released in theaters Dec. 25.
Unlike Philadelphia — a city, county, and school district all in one — the collar counties are a mesh of townships, boroughs, and informal neighborhoods.
That geographical maze, along with the centuries-long evolution of the U.S. Postal Service, means some suburbanites are not even sure what town they live in.
He is from Abington Township and, like many Abingtonians, he has been living a lie.
Where is Bradley Cooper from?
Cooper grew up not in Jenkintown, but a mile away in the unincorporated Abington community of Rydal, in a house his parents bought before he was born, property records show.
In the 1980s, he attended Rydal Elementary, where he played a mime, according to a playbill shared on social media.
The Oscar-nominated actor later enrolled at Germantown Academy, a private school in Whitemarsh Township whose reunions he still attends.
Cooper is known to call nearby Jenkintown his hometown from time to time — maybe because the borough is more well-known, and because that is what his childhood mailing address was. His reps did not return a request for comment this week.
Some Abingtonians don’t know where they live
But unlike people who grew up in the tiny enclave, Cooper could not have attended Jenkintown School District or participated in its National Geographic-famous Color Day.
“As someone who grew up in Jenkintown and loved cute boys and is about the same age as Bradley Cooper, I can tell you he is not from the Borough of Jenkintown,” writer Lauren McCutcheon said.
Many Abingtonians think they live in J-town, borough manager George Locke has said — so much so that his staff starts resident service calls by asking for an address. Otherwise they could spend 45 minutes on the phone, Locke said, before realizing the caller is in Abington.
Residents of unofficial neighborhoods like Glenside, or towns that span counties like Telford, may be more aware of their official designation. Some Glensiders attend school in Cheltenham, while others attend Abington School District.
For people without a kid in public school, an invisible municipal boundary may not matter much day to day. But it matters for local elections and during tax season.
Nye Stevens, a longtime Postal Service expert for the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service, said mailing addresses can also affect people’s insurance rates, which are often based on zip code instead of municipality.
And a zip code across two towns is nothing, Stevens added — some people get their mail from another state.
Bob O’Brien of Wyncote used to think his practice, Relief Counseling & Art Therapy, was located in Jenkintown — until the tax bill from Abington arrived.
“It was confusing,” O’Brien said — especially since there is a Jenkintown post office in the same building.
“How it got this way, I’m not sure,” he added.
The demands of mail delivery
U.S. post offices began primarily as a pickup service in cities until the agency introduced home delivery in the late 1800s.
Then cars expanded the suburbs, townships shifted, and assigned post office locations grew increasingly messy.
“As townships grow, post offices seem farther away,” a New York Times headline about South Jersey observed in 1997.
The U.S. has also closed tens of thousands of post offices in the last several decades, Stevens said, which may mean losing a mailing city that reflects where people actually live.
A map shows the city limits of Waterloo, Iowa, in yellow, while a blue line shows the boundaries of the “Waterloo” zip code.U.S. Census Bureau
Around 1990, some in Congress tried to fix the issue with a bill requiring the Postal Service make zip codes match municipal boundaries if towns request it.
But such a change would “absolutely ruin the postal system,” Stevens said. “You can’t have a post office for every little borough.”
The bill failed, and years later, the Postal Service was routinely rejecting zip code change requests, Stevens wrote in a 2006 Congressional Research Service report.
“Some communities that lack delivery post offices complain that the need to use mailing addresses of adjacent areas robs them of a community identity,” he noted in the report.
But at the end of the day, “zip codes are basically a delivery system. They’re not a neighborhood recognition system,” Stevens said this week.
As for Bradley Cooper, the confusion around his addresses in the Philly suburbs has not ended.
He supposedlyowns an estate in New Hope. But he really lives in Solebury Township.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
