It's time for football tryouts at Angel Grove High but Tommy is having a hard time. Rita decides to field her own team and sends down the Rhino Blaster to lead the putties in a grid-iron battle.
Tropes:
- Football Episode
- Badass Bookworm: Billy actually managed to join the football team, despite the fact that at this point in the series, he hadn't received the Character Development that allowed him to move past being a stereotypical nerd. Hell, Tommy was more doubtful about making the team than Billy was!
- Big Damn Heroes: Rhino Blaster downs the Dragonzord and gets ready to stomp Tommy, but then the newly freed Rangers arrive in the Megazord.
- The Brute: Rhino Blaster's fighting style mainly revolves around his brute strength, but he does have a few other gimmicks such as a saber he uses while fighting the Dragonzord.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: As Tommy notes, he's trained most of his life at karate, so it's not easy to switch to football. While training with Ernie, he lapses into his usual poses and accidentally kicks the tackling dummy.
- Didn't Think This Through: Mr. Kaplan introduces only nine players for the football team and thinks he's announced everyone. While eight-man football does exist in California, it's only played by very small schools. Based on Angel Grove High School's size, the amount of buildings in the town and the fact that it has its own television news station, it's highly improbable that Angel Grove High School would play eight-man football. Even if it did, an eight-man team would have a lot more than nine players.
- Dumb Muscle: Despite his grades and behavior in school, Bulk actually manages to join the football team thanks to his size.
- Hidden Depths: Ernie reveals he was an all-star fallback in college and agrees to help train Tommy.
- Irony: Tommy notes that, for once, even Bulk is more experienced at a sport than he is.
- Jerk Jock: Being a monster created around football, Rhino Blaster is this to a tee. He even refuses to honor Tommy's last request to see his friends before he dies *.
- The Mentor: Ernie takes up this role to teach Tommy about the dos and don'ts of football.
- Negative Continuity: As anyone who's ever been on a high school sports team knows, this type of thing is usually something that greatly affects one's schedule (both in terms of school and personal life) for months, and yet the fact that 2/3 of the Rangers and Bulk are on a football team is something that never gets mentioned in later episodes.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "All right, Rangers, it's time to run the blitz."
- Real Men Wear Pink: Bulk isn't happy about the fact that football players study ballet for grace and agility on the field. He shows up to the ceremony wearing the tutu and promptly falls over.
- Rhino Rampage: Rhino Blaster
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Jason and later Ernie assure a doubting Tommy that he can make the football team if he just applies himself. Of course, given that only 11 players are announced for the team, it appears all Tommy had to do was show up to make the team.
