MLK FILMFEST
The Unity of Football
How Football transcends race in “Remember The Titans”
There are few things in life that can bring a group of people together like the game of football. It’s the ultimate team sport. The men lined up in-front of you don’t care about the differences and struggles your team is going through, all they care about is hitting you in the mouth. In Remember the Titans (2000), the narrative of ignoring the noise and coming together to accomplish a goal is perfectly exemplified as the Titans are the only team in the state of Virginia tasked with the integration of their school. In order to make it through training camp, stay undefeated in the regular season, and win a state title, everyone involved with the team including the fans had to learn to respect and work with each other.
Few scenes in movie history are able to give the viewer a clear visual of people putting aside the issue of race and coming together. Early on when the team is in training camp, white players refuse to block for black ones, and black players don’t want to play with white ones who don’t want them on the team. In response, Coach Herman (Denzel Washington) requires every players to spend time with a player of another race and report to him what he learned about the other. Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst) and Julius Campbell (Wood Harris) reluctantly agree.
The tensions built up between black and white players comes to fruition when Julius asks Gerry “Why should I care about you or anybody else out there? . . . Why don’t you tell your white buddies out there to start blocking for Rev?” In this moment Gerry realizes he has been a hypocrite for expecting the black players on the team to make sacrifices when his white friends haven’t been doing the same. Later that night on the practice field, Gerry’s best friend Ray (Burgess Jenkins) does exactly what Julius said and lets the defender by, leaving the black ball carrier out to dry.
In this moment Gerry has to make a decision: Will he continue to allow race to affect the team, or will he stand up for his black teammates? Gerry chooses the latter and chews Ray out in front of the team. Gerry shows everyone that he will no longer stand for the unequal treatment.
During the confrontation betwan assistant coach attempts to step in and break the two up, but coach Yoast (Will Patton) holds him back. He recognized the gravity of the situation and the importance of this moment for the team to come together. On the very next play Julius makes a spectacular tackle and what ensues truly transcends racism.
After Julius crushes the running back, he and Gerry are trash talking the offense when Gerry turns to Julius, hits him on the shoulder and yells “This is left side!” A brief moment of silence ensues as Julius seems to be caught off-guard by Gerry’s change of heart. During this moment Gerry nods his head towards Julius as if to say, “hit me back and let us put our differences aside.” With Julius’s shoulder hit in response, and the ensuing “left side, strong side” chant, the two captains are able to truly come together.
“Left Side, Strong Side” is the turning point in the film. The rest of the team is able to follow the example of Gerry and Julius and look past the color of each other’s skin enabling them to set their sights on a state championship. Gerry is able to display how much impact one person can have with their actions just by taking the first steps. However, when the team leaves training camp and heads back to the real world, the rest of the town has yet to go through a similar transformation. The team returns to a town full of hatred and they must act as an influence similar to Gerry by leading the way and showing everyone that they too can change.
It has been said that Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America when whites and blacks go to separate churches. Well, Sunday afternoon may just be the most integrated time in America as whites and blacks come together to enjoy the great American game of football.
The first time I saw Remember The Titans I was very young and hadn’t yet grasped the concept of racism. I hadn’t learned about the violent history of racism in America and never struggled to get along with the black players on my Pop-Warner team, so to me the movie was about nothing more than a team trying to win a state championship. It wasn’t until I rewatched the movie during Christ School’s MLK Day Film Festival that I began to realize the true struggle that was occurring throughout the movie.
While I haven’t personally had to deal with the many problems of racism in the movie, I have experienced how the game of football is able to bring people of all backgrounds together. Playing for a boarding school has given me the experience of meeting people from all walks of life. When new kids first come in for training camp it seems as though you have nothing in common with them, but after a few days of playing together, it’s like you’ve know each other your whole life.
