Exploring the Sociocultural Challenges of a Minneapolis High School Football Team

Amateur football, especially at the high school level, brings hope and unity to communities, both rural and urban. It acts as an escape and an outlet for some and a pathway out of poverty for others. Peter Berg’s Boys in Blue, a docuseries about a Minneapolis high school football team and the sociocultural challenges that its community faces, premiered on Showtime in January and is now in contention for Emmy consideration.

Challenges of Telling a Black Community’s Story as a White Man

Berg’s desire to tell the story of the Minneapolis North High School football team was met with skepticism by some members of the community. As a white man, he acknowledged that there were parts of the country he did not have access to or a deeper understanding of. He was clear that he wanted to understand and have an access point into what the community was like, so that through making a film, they could teach each other a little bit about themselves, find out what they had in common, and discover where they struggled together and succeeded together.

Berg and his crew filmed the Boys in Blue docuseries over the course of a year, during which the high school team was vying for a spot in the state playoffs and the Minneapolis community was considering a measure that would defund the police. The docuseries sought to balance out the parallel, yet intertwined stories of a football season and a political campaign.

However, the tragic coda to the series was the murder of Deshaun Hill, the quarterback of the team, in a random shooting, months after the season was over. Berg and his team were three days from wrapping production when they heard the news. They had cuts of the show prior to Deshaun’s murder, and they realized that what his mother was saying in the opening scene of the first episode was not just her worry about her son’s safety, but also a call for help for their community.

After Deshaun Hill was killed, Berg and his team took the docuseries back to the community and showed it to Deshaun’s family, the coaches, and the players. They listened to feedback and made sure that the community supported the show and felt that it was an accurate representation of what they were going through. Deshaun’s mother said, “Go forward with this show. I want people to see that my son was a 15-year-old boy and that this happens every day in America.”

Boys in Blue is a powerful exploration of the sociocultural challenges faced by a Minneapolis high school football team and its community. It highlights the impact of football on communities and the challenges of telling a Black community’s story as a white man.

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