海角大神

In the football movie 鈥淣ational Champions,鈥� we never see the athletes set foot on the field. The entire story takes place inside hotel rooms and conference rooms. It鈥檚 like setting a movie about astronauts entirely inside NASA鈥檚 Houston control room.聽

It鈥檚 not so much a sports movie as it is a morality play. 鈥淣ational Champions鈥� poses the question: How far would you go to stand up for a principle? It weighs the trade-offs of taking a firm stance 鈥� including the loss of money, status, and close relationships.聽

The story begins 73 hours prior to a championship title game in New Orleans. One of the two teams, the (fictional) Missouri Wolves, is poised to win the first-ever title for veteran coach James Lazor (Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, taking a break from Farmers Insurance ads). Its quarterback, LeMarcus James (Stephan James), is expected聽to become the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.聽But LeMarcus has more on his mind than being immortalized in a future Madden video game. He tweets that he鈥檚 not going to play in the championship unless the NCAA starts paying college athletes.聽

鈥淎ll of this money is predicated on one underlying principle: free labor,鈥� LeMarcus declares. 鈥淚t鈥檚 un-American, it鈥檚 exploitative, and it speaks to the darkest spots of the national soul.鈥�

The young Black player is alluding, of course, to slavery. The movie raises issues of racial inequality, but it also resists depicting Black people as victims without agency. At one point, an NCAA official offers a Black assistant coach an opportunity to take over from Missouri鈥檚 Lazor. But the assistant isn鈥檛 interested in the tokenism of becoming the first Black coach in a championship game. 鈥淚鈥檓 one of the best assistant coaches in this country. I don鈥檛 need a handout,鈥� he says.聽

At first, 鈥淣ational Champions鈥� plays too much like a didactic TED Talk 鈥� but with so much profanity that you鈥檇 think the screenwriter was getting paid by the F-word. In a series of speeches and press interviews, the quarterback relays figures about how much money the NCAA and its officials make. He lays out a detailed manifesto for reform. LeMarcus and teammate Emmett Sunday (Alexander Ludwig)聽persuade more players to join the boycott, marshaling their campaign from a hidden location. The NCAA feels as if it鈥檚 been held hostage, so it calls in a negotiator, lawyer Katherine Poe (Emmy winner Uzo Aduba). Her hard-hitting style would make an offensive tackle backpedal.聽

The hitherto polemical script by Adam Mervis, who also wrote the stage play the film is based on, becomes infinitely richer by embracing complexity as Katherine digs up information about LeMarcus鈥� past. (It鈥檚 possible that the film鈥檚 overly drab gray color palette is metaphorical 鈥� issues aren鈥檛 always black or white.) Katherine also offers a counterargument to the professionalization of college sports.聽She confronts the quarterback in a captivating performance that merits Oscar consideration for Aduba.

鈥淵ou think I don鈥檛 know what it鈥檚 like to be without heat in your house? That I don鈥檛 know what it鈥檚 like to not be able to afford your jersey, as you鈥檙e avoiding your coach because you don鈥檛 have the $50 to pay for it?鈥� she says, revealing that she once had a full-ride track scholarship at Duke. She took the money to escape poverty.

If the NCAA starts paying college athletes, she muses, what would it mean for less popular 鈥� and thus less financially lucrative 鈥� sports that aren鈥檛 basketball or football? What would be the fate of volleyball in Minnesota, soccer in Idaho, or softball in South Carolina, and all the students who might no longer get a leg up by going to college?

鈥淣ational Champions鈥� hurtles to an effective climax in which LeMarcus must weigh whether he can reach a win-win compromise with the NCAA and play in the big game. By peeling back the layers of the characters on both sides of the issue, the movie offers a potent reminder that, often, policy debates become mired in talking points. The danger is that we鈥檒l miss the human stories at the heart of such matters.聽

鈥淣ational Champions鈥� is rated R for language throughout and sexual references.