Former Kansas University lineman Keith Loneker has a part in the movie Superbad and hopes residuals from his acting gig will keep his family insured for three to four more years.

Keith Loneker wants to make it as a movie actor.

Not so that he can rub elbows with celebrities. He already has the pass code to gain entry to George Clooney’s backyard basketball court.

His motivation isn’t to gain fame. He already was honored two years in a row as an All-Big Eight football player at Kansas University and played in the NFL for 31â2 seasons.

Loneker, 36, wants to make it in show business so that he never again has to worry about coming up with the money to pay for his family’s health insurance.

The roles he has earned this past year have helped him in that regard.

Loneker has a small part in comedy hit “Superbad,” which he called “the ‘Porky’s’ or ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ of my generation. Everybody who’s seen it just loves it.”

He also landed roles in “Leatherheads,” scheduled to hit theaters in December, and “Lakeview Terrace,” scheduled for a 2008 release.

Loneker is back home in Lawrence, spending time with his family and working as a substitute teacher and coaching youth sports. Loneker had been a security officer at Lawrence High for two years.

“My major was education, which I haven’t finished,” he said. “I like being around kids, like working with kids. I’ve taken some lumps financially at times, but I’ve coached the majority of my son’s and daughter’s teams. I have my whole life to make money, but I only have so many years to influence and steer them and their friends. What’s the sense of playing in the NFL, having that experience, if you’re not using it to help somebody else?”

Loneker said that he has been told by insurance companies that because he played in the NFL his entire body is considered to be a “pre-existing” condition because of the “wear and tear.” The Screen Actors Guild insurance, he said, is why he is so appreciative of the work he has received lately. He said he hopes the residuals from the work will keep him and his family insured for the next three or four years.

The work didn’t come without sacrifices.

“I was gone four months filming ‘Leatherheads,'” Loneker said. “That was a tough one.”

The 1920s football movie stars Clooney and Renee Zellweger, with whom he said he enjoyed socializing.

What’s Clooney like?

“George is as regular as can be,” Loneker said. “If he was in town right now, he’d be sitting next to us watching a football game.”

Who’s better looking, Loneker or Clooney?

“Me, by far,” Loneker said. “Not even close. They can call him the sexiest man alive, but I’m the most handsome. I told him, ‘Dude, you do know I’m the biggest star in the movie,’ because I am literally the biggest.”

Offensive linemen aren’t small, and Loneker has put on weight since his playing days.

He takes his acting career so seriously because it represents the best chance for financial stability for his family. Teaching full-time isn’t an option.

“I’m 30-some credits away from my degree,” he said. “I was really only in school here 31â2 years. That spring semester my senior year (1993), I didn’t do much school work. I thought I was going to be an NFL star. When you’re going to (scouting) combines and you have all those distractions …”

It was at the combine that Loneker was branded an orthopedic risk because of an old hip condition. He wasn’t drafted and didn’t have a degree. He made the Los Angeles Rams’ roster and worked his way into the starting lineup. Still, he cautions other prospects, the linemen who get drafted higher are afforded more time to develop.

Loneker didn’t red-shirt during his career at Kansas. Based on his life experience, he urges those who do red-shirt to use all five years before thinking about a professional career.

“You’re a year closer to getting the degree, you are going to be a better football player, you’re crazy to leave,” he said. “I thought I’d get back to getting the degree, but life happens. I get in the NFL, I have kids, I’m supporting them, and the degree becomes secondary.”

Asked specifically about KU junior left tackle Anthony Collins, a fourth-year junior and an NFL prospect, Loneker pauses, bites his tongue and is urged to offer his perspective. It’s not his place to say anything, he thinks at first, then remembers if he’s not going to share his experience as an NFL player, he’s being selfish.

Loneker, who coaches the Lawrence Hurricanes youth football team, pays close enough attention to the KU football scene to form an opinion on both strength and conditioning coach Chris Dawson and offensive line coach John Reagan. He’s bullish on both men.

“Collins stays another year and works with Dawson and gets into things with Reagan, I think that next year he has an opportunity to be one of the premier tackles and be drafted early,” Loneker said. “If he leaves this year, I think there are guys who can do what he does this year, but I think next year he’d be spectacular. He’s already in good shape. You just look at the evolution of our football players since Chris Dawson has stepped on the scene, it’s a different ballplayer.”

Collins’ best football years are ahead of him. Loneker’s only football playing is done now in the movies.

In ‘Leatherheads,’ he plays an 18-year-old high school student recruited to the football team by Clooney.

“They had a hairpiece for me, and I’m clean-shaven,” Loneker said.

In ‘Lakeview Terrace,’ he’s in a scene with Samuel Jackson, “an awesome guy,” Loneker said.

In life, he plays father, husband, bread-winner and coach. Acting in movies, he hopes, will help him play all those roles without as many worries.