Brian’s Song is a movie about competition, comradery and compassion. It demonstrates how two men–one Black and one White–competed to become a starter for the Chicago Bears. That competition created some humorous situations like misinformation being shared and someone having mash potato pants. One man gets injured and the other helps him rehabilitate. Rehabilitation takes a strange turn with some colorful name calling, but you get to see how something bad can be used for good.
But in the end, the two men became good friends. So much so that even the wives become friends. It’s a good thing, because one of the men become seriously ill further in the movie. It is that friendship that guides those relationships through the trials the final months.
There are two very important lessons Brian’s Song provides. Life is short and you need to fill it with as much joy as you possibly can right to the very last moment. The other lesson is one of hope. These two men of different races didn’t focus on race, but focused on the humanity of one another. Football was a battleground that forged a true friendship where society said Black men and White men should not room together. In that drama, Gayle Sayers and Brian Piccolo built a friendship that even the end could not destroy.
To see the movie in its entirety, please click here. Make sure to grab tissues.