A cool breeze brushes across your helmet and shoulder pads, sending a chill down your spine.
Fall leaves crunch under your cleats as you approach glowing Friday night lights in the distance.
A marching band echoes across the bleachers where family and friends root for their community.
There’s truly nothing like high school football, which is officially back this week across the D.C. area!
If you want to binge a TV streaming series to get you jacked up for this weekend, the new six-episode documentary series “God. Family. Football.” premieres this Friday, Sept. 1, on Amazon Freevee.
Executive produced by Russell Wilson, the series follows Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana, a team that’s won 14 state championships and one national title before plummeting to a winless 0-9 season in 2020.
The main character is faith-driven head coach Denny Duron, a former pro player turned legendary high school coach, who comes out of retirement at 70 to lead the team he founded at a school built by his parents, Rodney and Frances Duron. His optimism is refreshing, his life lessons are admirable and his enthusiasm is contagious, showing up with a coffee thermos at midnight to watch construction crews pour concrete for his stadium’s new turf field.
The turf helps his offense’s aerial attack by the Fulghum brothers, Peyton (quarterback) and Parker (receiver), who struggle in the mud. They’re raised by their dance-instructor mom because their dad, NFL quarterback Josh Booty, has been absent. They rebuke his recent appearances, saying they could have used his help 10 years ago, earning sympathy from audiences to counter barbershop chirping that the QB favors throwing to his brother.
Most interesting is backup quarterback Rodrigo “Ro” Ballesteros from Cancun, Mexico, who joins the team on a one-year foreign-exchange program. Nicknamed the “Cancun Cannon,” Ro performs under pressure and bonds with Peyton during a fishing trip, lamenting that he has to go back to Mexico after the season and insisting that they’ll remain friends for life. You’ll tear up when Ro hugs his parents, who shake Peyton’s hand on the sidelines.
These bonds are underscored by Black assistant coach Fabian Carter, who says racism melts away when you’re in a football huddle; it’s just you and your brothers protecting each other’s backs. However, his day job reminds him of the prejudices of the outside world when he takes his food truck to Florida, choking up as he describes having “the talk” with his kids that they might be treated differently because of their skin tone.
Off the field, we learn about the lives of the various teenagers. Evangel’s defensive star takes his cheerleader girlfriend on a romantic picnic in a cornfield, but they worry what’s going to happen when she goes off to college. Meanwhile, an offensive lineman goes on a blind date disguised as a fishing trip but fills the tackle box with candy and an invite to the homecoming dance, which crowns all the guys and girls as homecoming kings and queens.
The drama of their personal lives is enough to keep you watching even if you don’t like football, though the series won’t win any converts for those who already think the sport is too violent. Injuries play a major role, particularly concussions, as multiple players are carted off the field after “getting their bell rung.” In a scary moment, one kid even collapses on the field during the closing prayer. The message is clear: play at your own risk.
Either way, the action is exciting as filmmaker Aaron Benward shows actual game footage with the scoreboard flashing up on the screen. He also makes the unique choice of intercutting sit-down interviews with coaches and players, who clearly know the results of the game but try to speak in the present tense about the action we’re watching. Mostly, this makes for an immersive experience, but at times, it feels forced, telegraphing the outcome.
It’s a shame the camera crew didn’t randomly select a better season to cover. The sixth and final episode builds to the last game of the regular season before cramming the playoffs into a closing montage. It’s an anti-climactic conclusion for an otherwise compelling series, though I’d absolutely watch a second season if it comes back, because I now care about these players and am fully invested to see how this team does going forward.
In the end, that’s all that really matters, and on that front, “God. Family. Football.” crosses the goal line.
