Undefeated chronicles the 2009 season of the Manassas Tigers, a high school football team in North Memphis – also known as the perennial whipping boys for the rest of the state. Facing a fourteen-year losing streak, the team is taken over Bill Courtney, a volunteer head coach / lumber salesman in his quest to lead them to one of their few winning seasons and their first playoff victory in their 110-year history.
Ostensibly, there are a number of comparisons that could be made between this year’s Academy Award winner for Best Documentary and the former hit television series Friday Night Lights: the hardnosed coach instilling “character” and “discipline” and touting the mantra that “football reveals character” while battling struggles within his own family; players with anger management issues; players using football as a way out of the environment; players talented enough to go pro but battling the academic hurdles in front of them; close games that force the perennial underdog to band together and come from behind to seal a shocking victory.
Despite challenges like two players shot and two arrested in the first two weeks of a season, this year’s Tigers have a golden shot at winning their division because of three players: OC Brown, a gigantic, athletic right tackle who destroys opponents while crashing open doors for the running back; Montrail “Money” Brown, an academic and offensive lineman filled with heart and motivation; and Chavis Daniels, a troubled teen with anger issues returning from a stint in juvie. Throughout, the three have their ups and down as does Courtney. At times, he appears at the end of his rope, and the talk of retiring after the season looms on account of stress and a seemingly neglected family.
While both endearing, and heartbreaking, this is not why we keep watching. The wins and losses mean less than the bio-political commentary that lies underneath, particularly about the currency of the underprivileged. During their fourteen-year losing streak, the Manassas Tigers were less than punching bags. They were ironman football players, forced to play both sides of the ball because of a lack of funding and enrollment, who were sourced out to various schools and regions as shills masquerading as worthy opponents. Three hour bus trips resulted in bruised, batter, exhausted bodies. And, the payoff was a few thousand dollars for the high school, of which they divided the revenue between academic and athletic ventures. The problem is that neither department gets enough money to improve and they merely stay afloat.
Part of this circumstance is indebted to the closing of the Firestone plant, which cost a number of jobs in the community. This, at its heart, is a comment on industrial capitalism and how plants and factories that offer momentary security and financial uplift can be moved to a more densely populated – or more affordable – area. This in turn can cripple a community and lead to a massive economic downturn.
However, the subtext of these “pay games” is more nefarious than the resulting mediocrity. Instead, they elucidate the value minimal value placed on students – the athletes in particular. At a school like Manassas, prior to 2009, scouts would skirt the games, not giving any player with potential a glance. Perhaps there was no one of college-football caliber — much less NFL – but if there was, he would be destroyed by politics and simply a widget for generating revenue. It’s difficult to blame the school for employing this tactic given the lack of government funding for education, but it’s a depressing state of affairs when the athletes become bargaining chips and more akin to indentured servants than students.
The situation depicted in Undefeated could certainly be seen as a microcosm of the debate that thrives within college sports as to whether or not athletes should be paid. There, like in Manassas, the teams generate massive amounts of revenue for their respective colleges and universities. The assumption – again similarly – is that students are rewarded with an education, and this may be true in part, but a student on an athletic scholarship only has security when his or her body is healthy and ready to perform. Much like there are no guaranteed contracts in the NFL, there are no guaranteed contracts in college. A torn MCL or busted Achilles can end both and athletic and academic career.
Therefore, the darker side to Undefeated is the one that exposes the temporality of players and how schools must exploit these talents as best they can to generate whatever revenue is available to them. Like us, they must make hay when the sun shines.
In the end, these cynical thoughts will be momentarily elided as Courtney’s lauding of “character” is seen seething from the pores of his team as they leave their blood and sweat on the field as a few move on to bigger and better things. In a sense, Undefeated alludes to the cynicism within Hoop Dreams but ends on a high note, suggesting maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel, at least for some of them.
