Dodgeball was nearly ruined by a scene which looks incredibly awkward years later

We all know the movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story as a modern comedy classic, as popular today as it was back in 2004 when it first came out.

However, if you do decide to watch it in 2023, you might just notice one very awkward scene with a sporting twist.

The film centers around Vaughn's character, Peter La Fleur, and his efforts to keep his gym (Average Joe's) afloat. Needing to raise $50,000 to do so, Peter with a 'ragtag group' of Average Joe's members and employees enter - you guessed it - a dodgeball contest with a big prize. To his dismay a rival gym, set up by Stiller's character White Goodman, also enter the competition. As a result, hilarity ensues.

Anyway, back to the awkward scene.

To add to the awkwardness of the airport scene, Armstrong pontificates on the importance of not quitting after Peter admits he walked away from the dodgeball tournament.

"Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn't have anything to regret for the rest of their life," Armstrong says, before telling Peter he's sure his decision won't haunt him forever.

Maybe he should have just cheated instead, ay Lance?

The scene is certainly a funny one, but with the benefit of hindsight, its hard not to think about the nature of Armstrong's offences, and just how differently he was viewed by the public when the film was first aired.

While Armstrong's own survival of beating testicular cancer in the 1990s is unquestionably inspiring to this day, his words in the movie now ring hollow given all that the world has learned about his character since.

In the end, the movie's overarching themes of sportsmanship and fair play do still shine through - even if the lead character's main source of inspiration to keep playing didn't exactly abide by those principals himself.