‘America’s Game’ shows Pats’ fun side on SB run
If “Do Your Job 2” gave a glimpse into the Patriots coaching staff pouring over endless hours of homework to accomplish the task of winning Super Bowl LI, then “America’s Game: 2016 Patriots” made the journey appear more like recess.
In other words, in the buttoned-up, business-like world the Patriots like to present on most days, the latest NFL Films production, which will air tonight at 9 on NFL Network, shows that even the No Fun League can have plenty of it when seen through the lens of the players.
Narrated by Massachusetts native Chris Evans, the film tells the story of last year’s Patriots through interviews with receiver Julian Edelman, linebacker Dont’a Hightower and running back LeGarrette Blount. What resonates most is not the information given, as is the case in the “Do Your Job” documentaries, but the personalities that shape a team’s chemistry over the course of a season.
In a daily locker room setting with reporters, players may show off-therecord bits of light-heartedness, but for the most part, they stick to the script that coach Bill Belichick wants, which is mundane and repetitive.
That’s not the case here, and it’s why the film is worth watching.
Hightower is the most matter of fact in his delivery, a pragmatic thinker who took that approach during the Super Bowl. While Edelman, with the Patriots trailing the Falcons, kept repeating how “It’s gonna be a great story!” when the Patriots come back, Hightower almost seemed annoyed by the blind optimism of his teammates before anything actually got done.
The children’s book Edelman wrote, “Flying High,” acts as a plot device to thread the scenes together. The not-so-veiled Pats-like characters, from Julian the Squirrel, Tom (Brady) the Goat, and a hoodie-wearing wise old owl named Bill (Belichick), draw laughs from Blount and Hightower and give a peek into Edelman’s goofy side.
That element runs throughout the film, as one gets the sense Edelman levies his intensity on the field with a need to be the first one to make someone laugh or say something to get a reaction.
But it’s Blount who has the most magnetic persona of the group. He’s genuine, playful and self-reflective all at once, and generally becomes the one you root for the most. That’s not lost on his former teammates, as Hightower describes Blount, who’s now with the Philadelphia Eagles, as the popular kid in school to whom everyone gravitates.
A key moment in the film comes in regards to the shocking, midseason trade of linebacker Jamie Collins to the Cleveland Browns. Hightower, maybe Collins’ best friend on the team, notes how it’s the business of the NFL, but Blount unequivocally states that no one on the roster agreed with Belichick’s decision to jettison the athletic playmaker.
For the most part, “America’s Game: 2016 Patriots” is not about business or doing a job. When Edelman references the latter saying over a pancake block he made against the Houston Texans in the playoffs, he cracks a slight grin.
Without expressly stating it, it’s his way of saying that if you’re going to do your job, why not have fun doing it?