Greater (film): An almost wonderful underdog story in American Football

I am a big fan of films that are based on actual events and an even bigger fan of such films that are built around people who defied odds and became exceptional at sports. That's exactly what the movie Greater is and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think other people will as well.

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The poster says "true story of the greatest walk-on player in the history of college football" and in order to appreciate that you need to understand what "walk-on" means. Typically, college football teams consist of players that were recruited because a scout saw them play while they were in high school. This is how they end up with their rosters for the most part. The schools realize that their scouts can't be everywhere all at once so they will allow for a certain tryout session where all of the participants are people who simply think they were overlooked but are good enough for the team. As you might expect, most walk-on's do not end up making the team at all and many of them are delusional about their own abilities. Some of them aren't though, and that is the story of Brandon Burlsworth from Arkansas.

For Brandon, he was always a big boy. He was nicknamed "cheesecake" by his brother and despite the constant love and support from his mother, he was never really intended to do anything particularly great. He did play football in college and because of his size and interest in the game, he actually was awarded a scholarship to another school but it was not the school he wanted to play for. What he really wanted and had wanted from a very early age was to be an Arkansas Razorback and rather than take the scholarship and go to the minor school, he decides to walk-on and try out to play for the team he really wanted to be a part of in the first place.

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Brandon was severely overweight when he was walking on, but still showed signs of potential greatness or as his coach called it he was a "diamond in the rough." He worked very hard to improve his abilities as well as gain muscle and speed. It was through this sheer determination that he went from being a non-scholarship walk-on, to being a full-ride scholarship starter, to being an All-American team member, to being drafted by an NFL team, the Indianapolis Colts. Only 2% of all college football players end up making it to the NFL, so when you consider that he wasn't even selected to be a division-1 college football player initially, this is one hell of a transformation.

I enjoy these sort of success stories in sport movies just in a general sense, but in this one it was also very wholesome because Brandon is a genuinely good person and it is through his own dedication that he, not the coach, inspires his teammates to work even harder to get better.

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He was successful in converting a losing team into one of the best teams in the nation and he was considered an inspiration to his teammates as well as the sport in general. Everyone loves a good underdog story don't they?

Tragically for Brandon, he was killed in car accident less than half a month after having his dream come true of making it to the NFL and before anyone accuses me of spoiling, this is shown to us in the first 2 minutes of the film as well as in the trailer.

Should I watch it?

The film didn't do well at theaters as it went on to make back just 2 of its 9 million dollar budget. Many critics attributed this to the fact that there was a lot of stuff in the film that made it seem like a "faith based film" rather than a sports film. That sort of thing does kind of get under my skin as well but the fact of the matter is that Brandon was a very religious person in real life and his faith was a big part of his life so I don't have a problem with that at all. It's not like they are trying to convert anyone who is watching it, that's just the way that Brandon and his family were.

For me, it was a great and sometimes stressful story of triumph when from the very start, everything seemed like it was not going to turn out well. There are not many success stories like this in life and therefore I found it to be inspirational and was also actually a pretty fantastic performance by the normally terrible Neal McDonough.

I don't think you need to be a fan of American football to enjoy this movie, but it probably wouldn't hurt. I liked it and think that most other people will as well.