Undefeated

Seeing as it's Oscars night tonight, it just seemed right to mention that a football movie produced by a former football player is up for best documentary. Undefeated spends a season following the Manassas High School Tigers, a football team from inner-Memphis, which, in its 110 year history, has never made it to a playoff. But then six years ago, in walked Bill Courtney, who committed himself to working with these kids to change all that.

Directors Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin caught wind of the story from an article in the Commercial Appeal, a Memphis daily. Written by Jason Smith, the article, "Raising O.C.: Three Families Have Arms Around This Top Prospect," told the tale of O.C. Brown, a Manassas High School offensive tackle who at 16, and 315 pounds was a sweet, soft-spoken behemoth with a talent for as Smith put it, "plowing through defenders like a Mack truck through a flower bed." Brown's academic issues led to a living situation than rang a familiar note. Big, black offensive tackle living with white folks in Memphis. Before you start thinking Blindside II, this documentary is about the school where Michael Oher should have been enrolled. All the players at Manassas High have a story like Oher. None had Sandra Bullock to look after them.

Pretty much anything football has my attention. Some have compared this film and this story to a real life version of TV's Friday Night Lights. Like that terrific program, Undefeated is about far more than football. It's about people coming together to make a bad situation better. It sounds like a flick for the Flicker.

It would be irresponsible to aknowledge football on Oscar Sunday without mentioning Rooney Mara. She is nominated as best supporting actress for her role in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. As part of the New York Giants' Maras and Pittsburgh Steelers' Rooneys, she is football royalty.