Monday Night Bites: All-American and College Football

 ENTERTAINMENT: ALL-AMERICAN

(Will warn when spoilers come) 

I recently completed season 2 of All-American, the hit football show on Netflix. A fictional story based on Spencer Paysinger’s life, a Cinderella story of a player who beat the odds to go from a poor neighborhood to the college football National Championship and a brief NFL stint. 

Spencer James, the protagonist, is a similar character, with a few creative differences. The premise is simple: a football star heads to Beverly Hills High from his humble roots in South Central LA. 

From there, Paysinger’s life and his fictional counterpart James are somewhat like Adam Gase’s offense with Peyton Manning and the Broncos and his current one with the lowly Jets. Both are based on the same person, but the similarities end there. James’ life involves countless dramatic moments: forbidden love, unsolicited money from recruiters, y’know, the usual stuff you see in the well established genre of football soap operas. 

By football soap opera, I don’t just mean the off the field antics. The on-field product is dramatic as well. Aside from the occasional game where the team either dominates or gets demolished for storyline/cool highlight montage purposes, every game comes down to the wire. It’s almost like… it’s scripted. It makes sense that they want to have close games, and I don’t fault them for it, but after 2 seasons, I’m getting suspicious of the quantity of such occasions. Then again, these would be my complaints if the 2020 Seattle Seahawks were adapted into a fictional TV show.

(Spoilers start here) 

All-American is a great show. The problem they created in their second season existed purely from bad writing. It may be a football-centric program, but it requires drama. The problem is, it rapidly raised the stakes, like going from the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl to Rose Bowl. Producers obviously can’t repeat the same gimmicks, or viewers will lose interest. However, they tried to find this drama by stacking huge plot device after huge plot device like the Oklahoma City Thunder stockpiling draft picks. In season 2 alone, we’ve seen a murder accusation, a cancer death, and a shooting of the protagonist. Season 2 was over the top, but still enjoyable. The concern for future seasons is the fact that they won’t have any more cards to play, and may have to fold on the entire show as a result.

I have enjoyed All-American so much over the past few months. It has educated me on issues like depression and racial gaps. It has entertained me with its thrilling football action. At the end of the day, it’s an extremely flawed show, and that’s why it’s so fun. 

SPORTS: COLLEGE FOOTBALL CLASSICS

NFL action is higher quality than college football. NFL games have more lucrative TV deals, higher ticket prices, and better viewership. Yet, there’s just something magical about the college game. 

Sure, it’s a pain to learn hundreds of new players each season, only to throw them in the mental paper shredder in a few years. However, that commitment is worth it. 

NFL has thrillers, as we see every weekend, including some classic duels between top teams, like last week’s Steelers/Ravens rivalry matchup. There’s just something about the college game that has some extra heart. 

This was the case in Saturday night’s classic between Clemson and Notre Dame. The game went to double OT(another superior part of college; instead of a tie, games can go to infinite numbers of overtimes). 

When you examine the stat line, nothing looks particularly different from the pro level, other than the distinction of college football’s increased scoring totals. However, the emotion of the game is the game changer.

The feeling in South Bend was special. Both teams knew this was essential to their season. NFL regular season games are exciting, but individually, somewhat inconsequential. Big time college duels like this one are important for both teams’ hopes at titles due to the competition in making the College Football Playoff.

The emotion for both teams is great as a result, with both teams knowing their road to celebration in January will be much harder without a W on that Saturday night. Coaches, players, fans, everyone acts like this is crucial for their seasons, because it is. 

It’s awful that fans like Notre Dame stormed the field and endangered many to COVID-19 after the game. However, for the most part, the thrill of college football fans is like no other. NFL may have higher quality of play, but college football has heart like no other.

(Did it! Summarized ND/Clemson without naming a single player. Even resisted a Uigalelei mention!)

Rabbit Holes of the Week:

THIS IS A PENALTY: Protest against the awful refs in a fictional show: https://twitter.com/caseyatdabat73/status/1324168878109306880?s=21

College Football Bowl Schedule: Comb through here to find companies you didn’t know existed, odd names for bowl games, and locations you didn’t know had football stadiums: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2020-10-30/2020-21-college-football-bowl-schedule-dates-times-tv-channels%3Famp