A Disney+ original film released in 2020, based on the true story of college football player Ray McElrathbey.
In 2006, Ray is a freshman college football player who has begun his career as a student-athlete on scholarship at Clemson University. While learning to juggle his responsibilities between the team and his classes, Ray receives a phone call from his younger brother Fahmarr and learns that their mother has suffered a drug relapse.
Back in his hometown of Atlanta, Ray learns from child services that with no other relative available to take care of him, Fahmarr will be placed in the foster care system. Unwilling to leave his brother's future to chance, Ray takes custody of him instead and brings Fahmarr back to Clemson. Now Ray must take care of Fahmarr on top of his other commitments, all without alerting the college to what he's doing so he doesn't lose his scholarship.
Contains examples of:
- Academic Athlete: Ray is majoring in psychology, explaining to Kaycee that he knows his football career will end eventually and he wants to have a practical education to fall back on.
- Book Dumb: Fahmarr is a realistic example of this. He's a bright and intuitive kid who's even able to assist the team by pointing out some of their opponents game-plan tendencies on film. However, the instability of his home-life coupled with the lower standards of his inner city school system have caused him to fall behind other kids in his grade level and he struggles to adjust to his new school at Clemson.
- Character Development: Ray gradually learns that there's nothing wrong with accepting help from the people who care about him and that he can rely on others.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kaycee decides to print a story about Ray in Clemson's newspaper to raise awareness of his and Fahmarr's situation and get the community to help. It winds up catching the attention of the NCAA, who believe Ray and Clemson may be breaking the organization's improper benefits rules and launch an investigation.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: After hearing Ray's story, the NCAA agrees to allow the Clemson community to give Ray and Fahmarr any necessary benefits needed even though it's technically against the written rules.
- The Tell: While sitting in on one of the team's film sessions, Fahmarr correctly guesses the next play will be a run because the film showed that the opponent's running back always tugs on his jersey before plays where he gets the ball. Sure enough he's right and the team uses it to their advantage in the game.
- White Man's Burden: Discussed. Ray accuses Coach Simmons and his family of only offering him help so they can feel good about themselves for helping an underprivileged black family. Simmons angrily explains to Ray that he's offering Ray help because he cares about him personally, just like all of his players. Moreover, Simmons himself came from a poor household that struggled while he was a college student so he understands Ray's situation and wants to ease his burden out of empathy.
