Walking on Dead Fish tells the story of the East St. John Wildcats, a small-town high school football team that looks within to brave the adversity delivered by Hurricane Katrina.
Barney Gorman (Tony Danza) works hard as a garbageman, but his career indirectly embarrasses his family. All the Philadelphia Eagles' coach wants to do is impress the football fans in Philadelphia, but having a team that lacks success makes that hard for them. But one day, when Barney and his friend are picking up garbage, Barney takes out his frustration and kicks a water jug at the city dump, which also happens to be a scouting location for the Eagles to buy land in order to build a new stadium, and the owner is present. The jug goes so far, that the Eagles' coach sees and asks Barney to be their new kicker, which the owner feels is an excellent publicity stunt in "giving an average Joe a shot at the NFL".
Montana. Roy Chutney, livré à lui-même depuis le décès de son père, a perdu le goût de vivre. Un jour, il fait la rencontre de Gideon Ferguson, un entraîneur de football américain, qui recrute des adolescents bagarreurs pour monter une équipe de six-man football, un dérivé brutal de cette discipline sportive. Roy ne tarde pas à rallier les rangs de l'équipe...
Freddy the Freshman, "the freshest kid in town" and a canine "big man on campus", crashes a college pep rally, and then proceeds to become the star of the big campus football game.
Jim Fowler is Western University's football hero and is constantly besieged by reporters. Jim's father Ezra comes to visit him and becomes reacquainted with an old Western football chum, Mr. Chandler, who happens to be the father of Jim's girlfriend Joan. Jim keeps his roommate, Andy, busy by sending him to collect money on their laundry concessions business, even though Andy is desperately trying to meet his girlfriend Thelma, who has just come for a visit. When the coach tells Chandler and Fowler that Jim is nervous and erratic, Chandler invites Jim to spend the night before the big game at his home.