"The Cost of Winning" (2020 release; 4 episodes of about 28 min. each) is a TV documentary mini-series about the life and times of the football team at St. Frances Academy, a Baltimore inner-city, almost all black, Catholic high school. As Episode 1 opens, we are reminded that as a result of other high schools (who coincidentally are almost all white kids) refusing to play St. Frances any longer, St. Frances is now forced to play a national schedule. We are also reminded of the devastation and violence that has wrecked Baltimore's inner city for years and years. Then we are introduced to the kids themselves... At this point we are 10 min. into the opening episode.
Couple of comments: this is the latest sports documentary produced by Michael Strahan. Here his production team takes a closer look at the role of football as a possible way out of the inner city for a bunch of kids. The football program has no resources of its own and instead relies on the generosity of (co-head coach) Biff Poggie, who struck gold as a former hedge fund manager (Poggie says he spends roughly $300,000 a year on the program, paying literally for everything from coaches to housing to travel, you name it). But even more amazing are the background stories of the kids themselves, who battle incredible odds to make something of themselves. At one point, the kids are at practice on a nearby street (they don't have a stadium or regular practice field) listening to Poggie, when you then clearly hear 3 gunshots being fired nearby. Just another day in the neighborhood. If I have any criticism of "The Cost of Winning", it's that 4 episodes totaling about 2 hrs. are not nearly enough, and hence at times this mini-series feels rushed.
All 4 episodes of "The Cost of Winning" premiered this week on HBO and are now available on HBO on Demand and other streaming services. If you have an interest in high school football, or more importantly, how inner city African-American young men are trying to find a way of of a "cycle" (as Poggie phrases it), I'd readily suggest you check this out (preferably in one binge session), and draw your own conclusion.
