Christopher Meloni's sporty roles

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Gym Teacher: The Movie (Sept. 12, 8 p.m.)
Meloni plays a disgraced Olympic gymnast-turned-obsessive phys-ed instructor who tries to win Gym Teacher of the Year by transforming a nerd into a jock. ”It’s a mélange of humor — broad, physical, and more subtle stuff. It has Amy Sedaris and [director] Paul Dinello from Strangers With Candy, and that kind of absurdist, edgy comedy shoehorned into a kids’ comedy is like the best of the Warner Bros. cartoons: It works on two levels — adults and kids can enjoy it. Also, I wear shorts a lot. Truly, the only reason why I took the project is because in almost every scene, my character is in shorts. That’s worth the price of admission right there.”

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1st & Ten (HBO, 1984-91)
From 1989 to 1990, Meloni played ex-con QB Vito Del Greco (a.k.a. Johnny Gunn) on this racy football comedy. ”This was a T&A show dressed up in bad comedy and occasionally they’d try to wedge in some drama, which really didn’t fly. Look, O.J. Simpson was the general manager of the football team: What more can I say? It was my first job. I was trying to ‘figure out my character’ and I put way too much hot sauce on this week-old, cold pupu platter. When you’re a starving, marginally employed actor, any job is a great job, and I felt I could make it better, and…that’s just not the case.”