The film is loosely based on the 1987 NFL strike specifically the Washington Redskins who won all three replacement games without any of their regular players, going on to win Super Bowl XXII at the end of the season.

The opening scenes of The Replacements see American football team, the Washington Sentinels, in dire straits. The players have walked out in a protest over pay at a vital point in the season, forcing the Sentinels' owner to bring veteran coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) out of retirement to put together a replacement team. He assembles a group of oddballs and misfits including failed quarterback Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), a boozing Welsh brawler (Rhys Ifans), a convicted former football pro, a deaf mute, a psychopathic ex-cop, a sumo wrestler and a kleptomaniac (Orlando Jones) who has trouble catching the ball.

The Washington Sentinels' used Baltimore Ravens' stadium M&T Bank Stadium but called PSI-Net Stadium at the time.