GOD. FAMILY. FOOTBALL: EPISODE 2.3

GOD. FAMILY. FOOTBALL. has a new season on FOX Nation. It follows the Shreveport, Louisiana, Evangelical Christian Academy football team. They are a highly prestigious program, known for winning, producing NFL-caliber players, and being devout Christians. During the first season of the show, they made a deep playoff push, but unfortunately came up short of glory. With most of their talent gone, they have to compete as underdogs.

GOD. FAMILY. FOOTBALL. Episode 2.3 starts during the final moments of a football game. They are down late, and their star quarterback takes a nasty hit. He’s down for the count. The announcer and the stadium all go quiet to pray. The player takes a moment before getting back up. They fought hard, but fell short of victory. Many of the players are frustrated with themselves and their shortfalls.

The coaches had a meeting afterward to discuss the game’s shortcomings and the game plan for next week. However, it’s important to note that they were also talking about their personal shortfalls, not just the players. One player was specifically frustrated with his shortfalls. While spending time with Shawn Boston, he informs some other players about a post that Nate Green made about being tempted to quit. Shawn calls him and tells him to take the post down, but not before it’s seen on social media.

We tune in for a practice, where Coach Denny talks to Nate about his post. He convinces Nate to bear through the frustration and find his joy again. Immediately after, we visit “Day Day” on a date with his girlfriend, Ashlyn. Day Day is frustrated with his health and play time. He has asthma. It makes playing hard for him. He wants to play more, but he feels as though his health is holding him back.

Moving on to the next game, we see that their opponents posted a photo mocking the Evangelical team. They went down early, but made a big comeback. Late in the game, they got a safety to turn things around. It was a significant momentum shift. They took the lead late and tried to hold on. But they gave up the lead in the last minute and ended up losing the game. Coach gets the kids together after the game and tells them that they need to be more of a family. They need to love each other and God more.

After the game, we cut to a church service. The entire football team went to the service. One member was a musician on the worship team. They all get together to worship and pray. After the service, Coach Denny and the pastor get together. They discuss the old pastor with the current pastor, who played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement. Together they talk about unity, love and reconciliation.

Episode three of season two of GOD. FAMILY. FOOTBALL. is well made, but has some problems. It suffers from featuring unnecessary moments, as the documentary style inherently captures the boring aspects of real life. For example, a scene where the football players perform with the cheerleaders at a pep rally serves no purpose. While a pep rally would be appropriate for a high school football team, the scenes don’t add gravity to the episode.

As far as worldview, the episode has a strong Christian/Biblical worldview. There are numerous instances of people giving credit to the Lord, praying, attending church services, etc. The episode features conversations about the importance of being a family and wanting the best for everyone around you. An example would be when the coaches were trying to teach life lessons outside of football. However, there is one instance of a romantic worldview when a player discusses how to handle temptations, specifically about him being tempted by college-aged girls. Due to the content and light football-related violence, MOVIEGUIDE ® suggests caution for young children.