Football Blues? Not Tonight

Football season may be over, and men may have the February blues, except those in Indiana. After all, it is another five months until training camp and the pre-season. But before you start reaching for the NFL Films highlight reels or in a worst case scenario, resort to sleeping with pigskins and a mouth guard, consider one last hurrah. The Super Bowl echoes may already be fading, but my family and I just watched one of the best football films of all time.

Think Remember the Titans. Think Rudy. Now think… Facing the Giants. Like the fictional team it represents, Facing the Giants is from a no-name production company out of what could be considered a no-name town like Albany, Georgia. This is no formula-driven, market-researched, product-placed-at-just-the-right-moments- (did someone say Top Gun and Pepsi?)-to-sell-more-stuff kind of movie. This one has dirt under its fingernails and grass stuck in its cleats. Is it cliché-ridden, emotional-roller coaster, mom-and-apple-pie, chest-thumping movie making? Of course! Those are the best ones. We want to see those stories because those are the stories you go looking for in the dark, stinking moments of life where you’re nearly convinced that what others say about you and yours is true. We need to believe in the myths and legends that tell us it’s not over yet, that you have a hope and a future. We need movies like Facing the Giants.

It is rare to see this kind of filmmaking put on by--dare I say it?--a church. Few churches are willing to pony up the bucks for a top-notch production. Too many faith-driven productions suffer from the words “close is good enough.” I am sensitive to those flaws because I’ve seen the best messages fumbled by lousy deliverymen. I was looking for the letdown and I couldn’t see it. Football movies don’t cost much to make when you balance it against the money-shot special effects that dazzle the audiences. But when the hits happen, you grit your teeth. When the drills and spills come at you like they did me... well, my football legs were aching in sympathy. Someone said it once, “Find one thing you like to do, and do it better than everybody else.” The folks behind Facing the Giants did that. They did it with the same heart and determination you see on the screen, and you believe each character because they are each character. They know football. They know the smell of the high school locker room. You want to talk about Friday Night Lights? Go "Face Your Giants" first.

And my son likes it just as much as I do.