Sitting in front of the screen to watch “The Underdoggs,” a new comedy with Snoop Dogg as fictional, former NFL superstar Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings, who has fallen, not on hard times (he’s still filthy rich), but into irrelevance and disregard for his selfishness and narcissism, I was ready to be underwhelmed. I’ve never been much of a fan of Snoop. I’m not the audience for his music. For the most part, I have only seen him smoking weed and trailing clouds of it in his wake on TV. Then, I noticed the names Kenya Barris (“Black-ish,” “Girls Trip”) and Mychelle Deschamps (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) in the producing credits, and Mike Epps, Tika Sumpter, Kal Penn and George Lopez in the supporting cast, and I thought, well, wait a minute.

As it turns out, “The Underdoggs” is a fun mix of such classic, kids-in-sports efforts as “The Mighty Ducks” (1992) and even the venerable “The Bad News Bears” (1976). In fact, if you can imagine “The Bad News Bears” reborn with a Black cast, an R-rating, swear words, a coach who smokes lots of weed and a scene in which the underage kids get drunk on beer, well, here you have it.

With his tall, thin frame and long salt-and-pepper dreadlocks, Jaycen resembles a human bullwhip. Someone else calls him “a hip-hop pirate.” He’s hoping to get a TV commentary job, but he doesn’t play with with others. He lives alone in a California mansion with a giant golden statue of himself at the entrance. Just as in “The Mighty Ducks,” Jaycen is assigned by a judge (Kandi Burress) to community service in Long Beach, where, scooping dog poop, he sees a “raggedy” group of Pop Warner football players from his old neighborhood, one of whom is the son of former girlfriend Cherise (Sumpter, “Sparkle”), who is also there. The next thing you know, Jaycen is showing up at the football field in his shiny gold G-Wagon with his old buddy, trying-to-go-straight Kareem (Epps), tagging along to play assistant coach to the kids. Kareem recently put a gun to Jaycen’s head during their “accidental” reunion and has stolen two pit bulls to serve as the team’s mascots.

Director Charles Stone III (“Drumline,” “Uncle Drew”) gets some very funny work out of Snoop and the supporting cast, especially the young people, who are well cast and whose chant at the final game should have gotten them disqualified. Jonigan Booth is especially good as the team’s pint-sized quarterback and Cherise’s son. That’s Kal Penn as Jaycen’s greed-driven agent (Get ready for a “Harold & Kumar” joke). Jaycen seeks the advice of his old, Yoda-like coach (a subdued Lopez). Forced by Cherise to drive some players home, Jaycen discovers that one of them is ashamed to admit that he lives in the trailer park where Jaycen grew up. Stand-up comic and podcaster Andrew Schulz is sublime as the loathsome rival coach. Surprises are not coming.

The screenplay by Isaac Schamis (TV’s “Grown-ish”), Constance Schwartz-Morini and Danny Segal (“#BlackAF”) is nothing if not derivative. But it’s a tried-and-true premise, and it works. As it turns out, Snoop is the founder of the Snoop Youth Football League and has sponsored thousands of young football players in the Los Angeles area. Sporting a series of outrageous designer track suits and $2,000 sunglasses in “The Underdoggs,” the farcical Snoop Dogg really is a football hero.

(“The Underdoggs” contains drug use, underage drinking, sexual references and profanity)

“The Underdoggs”

Rated R. On Amazon Prime.

Grade: B