OT: In Football We Trust documentary
Watched this on PBS last night and was absolutley captivated. It's 84 minutes and can be seen at the link at the bottom.
It is the story behind the Polynesian pipeline to the NFL as witnessed through the lives of four high school football players in Utah. It's directed by a Polynesian so you get some brutally honest real life behind the scenes stuff including seeing how they are recruited by Utah and USC (Lane Kiffin) among others.These players must contend with gang violence, drug abuse, poverty, and a culture that seems to have little emphasis in traditional education other than a means to the NFL via college. The stress that builds up to the Army All American Game school announcement is something that was impactful.
BYU just hired the first Tongan coach two days ago to tap into this pipeline.
One of the four players that "makes it", Harvey Langi, just played LB v UM when we played BYU (went to Utah first and then a mission). The schools highlighted include Highland where Sione Houma and Brian Mone (what a family story he is!) come from. It's also the hs of Lions Haloti Ngata . Troy Polamalu also is this documentary.
When you look at the concussion and other health issues, recruiting issues, education issues,etc. it makes you wonder about the sport we all enjoy for entertainment. I am the first one to love the NFL and shamefully follow UM recruiting so I am not criticizing anyone, but it is a very weird system that has warped values.
I hope this is worth your watch and you can draw your own conclusions:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/in-football-we-trust/
edit: I would love to see a Rugby Style Haka pregame with OSU and UM
January 27th, 2016 at 12:36 PM ^
I haven't seen the documentary, but it sounds great and I look forward to watching it.
As far as the rest of your point, read "Friday Night Lights" and know these kinds of discussions have been going on for ages and ages.
Here's my take on all of this and it boils down to you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink: There are just going to be some individuals who are not going to really treasure education and are going to throw all of their time and effort into trying to make it in something they enjoy. This runs the gamut from Sports to acting to modeling to singing. Society's demand for entertainment is always going offer a path to instant riches that for some people feels more plausible and rewarding than becoming a chemist, being frustrated by this or thinking it reflects mis-placed priorities doesn't make it any less true. This isn't to say that a conversation about how we apply our public resources to this isn't in order, but I don't think we can act like there are no societal benefits to sports.
In terms of benefits, for the school and for the culture Sports drives engagement. My connection to the Air Force Academy or Michigan is made much tighter due to sports and I assume a similar phenomenom is happening in the Polynesian community. I grew up in a blue collar town in which my high school graduating class went from having about 425 kids in it when we started high school to a little over 300 at graduation and this was fueled by dropouts(town was growing at the time so we had more kids move in than move out as well) and a big difference between the dropouts and the kids who graduated was the dropouts were not really involved in school activities. For that reason alone I don't get too bothered if it sometimes feels like people are placing too high a priority on football, it at least keeps kids showing up.
For the individual, I can't speak for everyone but I can say from a personal level my life is better for having played football. It taught me discipline, how to work within a team, how to work within a group of people who were not like me(I was and am a nerd and most of the guys on the team were not, I still had to make friends and learn to deal with the guys on their level and not expect them to meet me at mine), I learned to play through being exhausted and realize that I had enough in me to spring that last block or fight through the trap to make the tackle, and finally, I went from being a guy on the fringes of being cut my freshman year to a two way starter my senior year and it was something I earned through a combination of hard work and learning to leverage my natural gifts to become a better player. Could I have learned these lessons elsewhere? Sure, and I did when I was in the military, but it taught me those lessons at an earlier age.
I'm not trying to be a Pollyanna and the CTE stuff is troubling and has to be worked through, but I wholeheartedly understand Harbaugh when he says football is worth it, and I think for a lot of those kids, it's worth it, too.
January 27th, 2016 at 12:35 PM ^
I saw the screening at Trotter on Monday night. Sione, Bryan Mone, and Haloti Ngata were all in attendance. What a great story.
January 27th, 2016 at 12:47 PM ^
I still can't get out my mind how that family cleaned up the trash at the football stadium because they couldn't afford the $5/ admission per person to watch their kid play. I have issue with that too!
Most fans might be surprised how some kids from other lower economic football factories such as Glenville and Cass Tech have a single parent that make similar sacrifices for their kid's hope.
January 27th, 2016 at 1:26 PM ^
Let me know what you think of the documentary. I really enjoyed Friday Night Lights btw.
I played sports, coach them,ref them, and have two kids that play (one can definitely play in college - his choice) so I am not against sports one iota. I do think kids need a plan "B" if it doesn't work out (and for most it doesn't). This isn't a Harbaugh problem or even a football problem - just needs to be discussed more.
Heck school isn't for many non athletes either. Luckily we need tons of vocational workers and the military is a great way for others to find themselves. Maybe kids could play on minor league teams while simultaneously learning how to be an electrician or whatever.
College as a free farm system for the NFL, NBA, and now moreso for the NHL and MLB makes little sense. If you use sports to get you into a D2 or community college you otherwise couldn't afford, I get it. But most top D1 colleges and kids use each other for the wrong reasons.
Soccer clubs outside the US have a different model.They recruit kids at a young age and develop them, house them, as well as educate them for "free". Not perfect but more logical.
Unrelated, my athlete (also a nerd) as an aside is also getting into robotics. Talk about learning team work and practical experience not found in books. Would love to see this activity, which also enriches these kids lives, more in poorer communities.
sorry to ramble...
January 27th, 2016 at 4:19 PM ^
I love your post. It's always worth pointing out that there are countless ways to learn all the great lessons guys learn playing football without the very real threat of serious injury to the brain. We're going to have to evolve as a society beyond the sport at some point. At least the sport as it's played now.
January 27th, 2016 at 12:42 PM ^
I watched it last night as well.
It was very interesting to see the family dynamics playing out. Add in the religous preasure they face on top of everything else and it made for a riviting look inside the whole modern polynesian HS football players lives.
January 27th, 2016 at 2:57 PM ^
Thanks for sharing this, just finished watching it and was blown away. Great watch.