Boys in Blue (2023): Season 1, Episode 1 - Day By Day - full transcript
In the wake of George Floyd's murder, tensions run high in Minneapolis. At North High School, football coaches work endlessly to earn a championship and keep their kids safe. The biggest challenge? They're all police officers.
[overlapping chatter]
dramatic music
vocalizing
[student] Why does everything
have to happen
when I get into high school?
First COVID, then all these
protests start breaking out.
George Floyd, all the rioting
that was going on--
I was just trying
to tell myself
like I can't get caught up
in all of this.
I was looking for
another family,
another team
to call my family,
and I found it.
Being in streets has never
really been an option,
but I just make sure
I ain't around none of that.
A lotta bad things
going on around here.
It's scary, but I don't--
I ain't scared.
edgy music
[person] You know, just
yesterday we had, uh,
about three homicides.
You know, we had a barbershop
that was shot up.
Then they found somebody
just a block away
shot in their apartment,
and then somebody
later on last night
got shot
at the convenience store,
So it's-it's nonstop.
You know, the violence
is crazy and, I mean,
it makes you appreciate
coaching football
and playing football
a lot more
just because we focus on
something else.
edgy, percussive music
[person] We lost a player
last year,
and we lost another one
several years ago.
Reality is,
they're just trying to live
and trying to survive.
[leader] Dear Lord, the battles
we go through in life...
[group] Dear Lord, the battles
we go through in life...
[leader] We ask for
a chance that's fair.
[group] We ask for
a chance that's fair.
[leader] A chance to
equal our strides.
[group] A chance to
equal our strides.
-A chance to do or dare.
-A chance to do or dare.
-If we should win.
-If we should win.
-Let it be by the code.
-Let it be by the code.
[leader] With faith
and honor held high.
[group] With faith
and honor held high.
-If we should lose.
-If we should lose.
-We stand by the road.
-We stand by the road.
-Cheer as the winners go by.
-Cheer as the winners go by.
-[leader] Day by day.
-[group] Day by day.
-We get better and better.
-We get better and better.
-Till we can't be beat.
-Till we can't be beat.
-Won't be beat.
-Won't be beat.
Whoo!
vocalizing
[person] Well, how was
the movies last night?
Well, we didn't
go to the movies.
They said there was shooting.
Yeah.
I'm glad you wasn't there.
I was so scared, boy.
Mm-hmm.
Do you got your eye
on any ladies?
[DeShaun laughs]
Yeah.
I did see her that one time
when we was at--
[DeShaun] Oh, it was
at the game.
Yeah.
Yeah, I ain't with
none of that.
Why?
Because you don't need
no kids right now.
You only 15 years old.
You don't need no girlfriend.
You got your whole life
ahead of you.
She 15 years old too.
Yeah, but these girls
is hot out here.
-Too hot.
-She on the A honor roll?
-You need to ask her.
-Exactly.
Your education,
your knowledge,
everything
to get up outta here,
'cause good grades make--
take you a long way.
Right, right?
I tell you that every day.
I'll tell y'all too.
Right?
What do I tell y'all every day?
[child] Take a shower?
[laughter]
[Tuesday] Besides that,
the educational part.
[Hill]
Education is what?
-[child] The key to success.
-Exactly.
-[Tuesday] Yeah.
-Oh, yeah.
-Most definitely.
-Definitely.
He in a straight
line to do that.
All-all we gotta do
is keep him out of trouble.
Yep.
[Hill]
That's hard too though.
[Tuesday]
The hardest part for me
is him going to,
like, the bus stop,
catching the bus for school,
going to the corner store.
'Cause I don't
know if it's gonna be
the last time
I'm gonna see him,
'cause it's that bad
around here.
So I pretty much take him
and all his friends
wherever they need to go.
If they need to go to practice,
I'm taking them to practice.
I'm picking them up
from practice.
I'm picking them up
from school,
I'm taking them to school.
Because
I don't want them to be
caught at the wrong place
at the wrong time.
That's my biggest fear.
moody music
[player] I can't wait
till this season start.
I been waiting all...
putting in all this work.
Fact.
How you been feeling though?
How you feel about this season?
-[mumbling] Good.
-What?
Good.
[DeShaun] Mm?
-Yes.
-[laughs]
-High stake.
-What he be saying?
[person] when I seen
the roster, I was like,
"Oh, we finna
get our ass kicked."
[both laugh]
Shit, I'm like,
it's gonna be a struggle.
We got a young quarterback.
It's gonna be
a fucking struggle,
because
that's where it starts.
If your quarterback is shaky,
it doesn't even matter
if you got seniors or not,
because
they go off of his energy.
But D. Hill
is gonna be a monster.
[person]
He's young and he's quiet,
and he doesn't necessarily
always carry that...
that quarterback swagger
or that quarterback
kind of mentality
to be able
to speak up and lead.
But he's starting to--
he's starting to get
a little bit more of that.
[barber] Yeah.
He's starting to
become an asshole.
[both chuckling]
[background chatter]
There ya go.
Push it back, push it back.
Hey, if your number's here,
just grab any number.
Number eight,
what'd you-what'd you grab?
[player] Thirteen.
-I got thirteen.
-Thirteen?
North High plays a big part
of North Minneapolis.
It's always been
the central place
of basketball, you know.
All the top athletes
would attend North
to play basketball.
And we've developed
in the last few years
a successful football program.
I became the head coach
in 2010.
Never won the conference
or the city championship,
and I was like,
I think we can do more.
I think we can do more.
[coach] Set, go.
Set, go.
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme,
gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.
Go.
Everyone's,
"Oh, it's just North."
It's what you hear.
Oh, it's just a bunch of
hood rats that are, you know,
trying to do their thing.
That's why it's personal.
It's like, "No, eff you.
Like we're gonna
show you who we are."
percussive music
[coach] Yeah!
[Adams]
Man, US Bank Stadium.
It is home
to the state champions title.
All day every day,
that is the end game.
I don't-I don't schedule shit
in between that or like,
no, no.
Wyclef said "Gone to
November," play to November.
If it doesn't happen, it don't
happen, but guess what.
It's gonna happen
until it don't.
Get on the white, shut up,
And when they call y'all to
get out there, get out there.
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah...
Tae-Zhan Gilchrist,
number 60 starting guard,
goes by Tae.
[father] Good morning, son.
[Adams] His father has been
the number one role model
main influencer in Tae's life.
We got a bad name
in our culture
about our fathers
not being there.
And that's why I like
to bring you fishing.
We sit and talk about stuff
that we don't talk about
around nobody else.
[Tae] My dad fought for me
for five or six years,
and he finally got
full custody of me.
I think my dad fought for me
because he wanted to prepare
me for certain obstacles
that men will face.
[Adams] Cashmere Grunau,
starting linebacker
number 30.
We call him Cash Money.
[laughs]
Cash bleeds blue, man.
Like he just--he wants to
give you everything he got,
and I love coaching
a kid like that.
[Cash]
Football, it's my way out.
It's my way of repaying
my family
for everything
that they've done for me.
[players] Oh!
[Adams] Mario Sanders is the
starting receiver number one,
but we call him Rio.
[Rio] I feel like I can do
a lot more on the field.
energetic music
Our plan right now
is to go to college,
play football.
[Adams] We had always
wanted to dib and dab
of him playing quarterback
'cause we just knew
he was a great athlete.
[person]
This is so important,
all these colleges
that's looking at you.
we need the big colleges.
[Adams]
They were locked in this week.
Like Rio never
gets on the chat saying,
"Let's go, let's get it,"
like--
But I told you
him and Meiko came up
and he said,
"Can we play defense?"
I'm like, "No, you're
not playing defense."
[coach] Back up! Boom!
Whoo!
[Adams] De'Meiko Anderson,
starting receiver number two.
We call him Meiko,
aka Freaky Meik.
[laughing]
You know,
he's Rio's best friend
and our number one receiver.
energetic music
vocalization
[person] These little dudes
been kicking with each other
since they were six,
seven years old.
Look at they brotherhood, bro.
You can't separate them.
[Plunkett]
Deshaun, D. Hill, I call him.
He's just so smooth,
laid back.
He pisses me off
every now and then
'cause he has
this just blank look like...
And it's like,
are you listening?
Are you comprehending
anything?
And he is,
but he's the type of person---
so am I, I don't
trust a lot of people--
he don't trust a lot of people.
[person] Oh--foul!
[Plunkett]
Receiver, go get the ball!
What's this [indistinct] shit?
[player] Last point,
last point.
[Plunkett] DeShaun seen a lot
of people getting murdered,
some of his friends
and stuff like that.
People getting beat up,
ran over, shot at, you know.
I been through that.
That's traumatizing as a kid.
You don't forget that shit,
you know,
and I can see it in him.
He ain't forgetting, and
he's never gonna forget it.
I had to break down
the barriers
to let him know
that I respect you.
I wanna show you that
you can trust me.
How I can do that is just by
being vulnerable, you know?
That's the only way
a person can trust you
and you trust them
because you gotta show them
that you can be
vulnerable at one point.
[DeShaun] Go.
At first I didn't want to
go to North Side
'cause I thought
like too many distractions.
Like everybody from elementary
and middle school
was going to North.
I didn't wanna be
around all that.
I wanted to get my work done.
My goal is make it to NFL.
Move my family out of
Minnesota to somewhere else.
Build a house,
have a lotta money.
-Go!
-[Plunkett] Get out, get out,
get out, get out, get out!
edgy music
That's a great pass.
That's a great pass.
That's a great
pass.
[DeShaun] I wanna take my
team to state championship
and win.
All we gotta do
is like stay focused,
worry about the next game.
Don't get hurt or none of that.
Just win.
[leader] Dear Lord, the battles
we go through in life...
[players] Dear Lord the battles
we go through in life...
[leader] We ask for
a chance that's fair.
[players] We ask for
a chance that's fair.
[leader] A chance to
equal our strides.
[players] A chance to
equal our strides.
-A chance to do or dare.
-A chance to do or dare.
-If we should win.
-If we should win.
-Let it be by the code.
-Let it be by the code.
[leader] With faith
and honor held high.
[players] With faith
and honor held high.
-If we should lose.
-If we should lose.
-We stand by the road.
-We stand by the road.
-Cheer as the winners go by.
-Cheer as the winners go by.
-[leader] Day by day.
-[players] Day by day.
-We get better and better.
-We get better and better.
-Till we can't be beat.
-Till we can't be beat.
-Won't be beat.
-Won't be beat.
Whoo!
percussive music
[reporter] Violent crime
in Minneapolis
spiked last year
after George Floyd
was killed on Memorial Day.
And so far this year,
the violent crime numbers
are outpacing 2020.
There have been 34 homicides
in Minneapolis so far in 2021,
up 89% from this time
last year.
[producer] Where in relation
to where we are now
did George Floyd die?
Uh, 30th & Chicago.
And that is off limits.
They done blocked it off
to where they didn't even
let people come in there.
[producer] When you say "they,"
do you mean police
have blocked it off or...
-Nope.
-So people blocked it off.
People.
Police ain't even
allowed up in there.
moody music
The tension
in North Minneapolis
with police
and the community is intense.
[overlapping shouting]
But I honestly had no idea
that things would unfold
the way they did.
My city and my neighborhood
was destroyed.
[siren wailing]
[people whooping]
So that's our field.
[gunshots]
You heard that, right?
That was--they shooting.
Yeah, that's...yep.
That's why we ain't gonna go--
we ain't gonna go across there.
The football field is in the
central of North Minneapolis,
and it's basically
in the middle of
the gang wars
and the gang feuds.
Oh, there they go right now.
Swags. Yep.
See they deploying
out of the precinct,
'cause they going
into them shots.
That's where they about
to go to right now.
But the toughest part
is where we were just at
by that--where the field
was at.
[police siren blaring]
[TV plays in background]
[Plunkett] Back in the '90s,
most of the gang members,
they was actually fightin'
each other for blocks.
They was actually fightin'
each other for a territory.
And when you had that
territory, that block,
that's where your money came.
Everybody
was killing everybody
over money pretty much.
But it's different now.
'Cause now
it's the young kids,
it's the 18, 19-year-olds,
and they're just killing
because
somebody was dissing
my homie on Twitter
or Facebook
or whatever the case may be.
So now motherfuckers
just don't give a fuck.
No matter who's in the
background.
Start blasting.
They don't care about shit.
That's the difference
now and then.
It's just-it's just crazy.
Just fucking crazy.
[Adams] The gang violence
and just the...
like the lawlessness
and like guys, you know,
eye for an eye
shooting one another
and, you know,
in broad daylight--
that's something
that I've never seen before.
You know, at least back in
the day when I was growing up,
it wasn't like that.
Now it's a lot more brazen
and automatic guns, you know.
And I didn't see that
growing up.
A couple of the students got
rolled up on, uh, yesterday.
Walking through the park...
with dudes in ski mask.
You know, so...
it's definitely--
it's definitely out there.
From my experience
when I was around that age
coming from
the same environment,
I feel like it's more just lack
of resources, lack of fathers.
Just feeling like if Mama
can't give it to me,
I'm gonna get it on my own.
And we learn that young,
at a young age,
to self-preserve
and to survive by yourself.
You know what I'm saying?
And go get the things you need,
necessities.
And sometimes
it turn into taking.
But if you had that man
in your life...
To teach you how to
deal with your emotions.
-To teach you how to talk.
-Yeah, to talk it out.
Channel that anger,
you gonna be good.
Like I said, most of these
kids out here don't have that.
-Yep.
-And then when they go
out there to their homies,
their homies is in
the same predicament.
-[person] Same predicament.
-So they're emotional.
They're out here
and they're pissed off
because they don't have it
and they don't--
don't know how to channel it.
That's basically what it is.
They don't know
how to channel the anger.
[Adams] Most of the community
around North,
they protect
that football field.
That's kind of like
a sanctuary
because when football games
are going on,
they want to be safe.
If you have people that's
getting murdered at the field
or around the corner
or whatever,
I mean,
North would literally die,
'cause no fans would wanna
come to the game.
So the community,
in some aspects,
protect their own.
It just really needs a village.
You know what I'm saying?
People that--like men
like Rick and OA,
you know what I'm saying?
They probably don't look
at it like they fathers,
but y'all fathers in your
own way to these boys.
Y'all saving them, even if
it's a small piece of they day.
You know what I'm saying?
You saving them.
You saving them some way,
you know what I'm saying,
that they gonna look
at life different.
heavy music
[Plunkett]
You got homicide rates up,
you got carjackings up,
you got shootings up.
What are we gonna do
with the community
and the police together
to stop this shit?
[indistinct chatter]
quiet music
[chatter, laughter]
I can't believe I'm gonna
be in my last year
playing in North jersey.
Like it really went fast.
I was just
sixth grade yesterday.
I always talk to
Meiko about it.
Like we really seniors.
I can't believe it still.
-[player] Can we get Papa John?
-Yeah.
[Rio] Me and him clicking
probably the best thing
that could happen,
'cause we had the same goals.
Like we never wanted
to be in the streets.
We always wanted to
have good grades.
I don't know, it's just
like I met the same person.
Out of all group of kids
it was just like
us two was always
the ones that was close.
[Rio] Everybody just ask,
like, y'all brothers?
Are y'all brothers?
We just say yeah.
I've been in North Minneapolis
all my life.
It's really great to me
'cause everybody's close.
Everybody know each other.
You know, like when you
go out in the community,
you see people
that you see every day.
I mean, it's a great community.
It's just a lot of
violence, you know.
I said, "What?"
Blood.
moody music
[whistle blows]
Hey, cheerleaders,
can you help us
get ready for the game
tomorrow?
-Whoo!
-Yeah!
And then football,
I'm gonna have you guys
stand under this basket
right here.
We're looking at about
80 to 85% Black students.
I would say our identity
as a school
from a cultural perspective
is Black.
And the way
that I've defined it
to the parents
and the community
is that we are
unapologetically Black
and we embrace it.
-We fired up.
-We fired up.
-We fired up!
-We fired up!
[Mauri] You'll oftentimes
hear me refer to North
as the dopest Blackest school
in the state of Minnesota.
We thrive in it
and we get life from it.
[cheers and applause]
[school bell rings]
I think of the kids
as not just their principal
but also kind of
from a mom's perspective.
You know,
I can't hear you guys.
Whatever happened
on the way here,
you are welcome here,
and this space is yours
and you are safe here
and you are loved here.
And we're not
burning nothing down.
We're only lifting
everything up.
North High School
is actually like a family.
Most of my culture from North
have the same backgrounds
and they've been
through the same things
that I done been through.
I'm gonna teach you
how to talk to a girl
when you like one.
In Minneapolis,
the city doesn't see it
as this big beautiful campus.
I've heard visiting teams
get off their bus
and go,
"This looks like a prison."
[game sounds]
[Mauri]
Morning, everybody.
People started to feel like,
you know what,
I love the school,
I really do,
but I just don't
love the area around it.
We had, you know,
some ongoing crime issues.
When you go to certain
schools like ours,
eventually over time they just
start to shut everything down
because they can't
control what's happening
outside of the school,
and what's happening
outside of the school
is permeating the school.
So they just shut
everything down.
[Adams] It was to the point
to where it was
under 100 students
in the school
and people in the community
and school board members
wanted to shut down.
[Mauri]
North High students and staff,
remember, you are loved
more than you know.
You are braver
than you can imagine.
You are more beautiful
beyond what you can see.
And you are stronger
than you sometimes feel.
We have a lot of work left to
do today, so let's get to it.
There's some
apple juice for you.
They have me as 5'8" and 180.
-No!
-I weigh way more than 180.
Bro, what?
I weigh way more than that.
I'm 230.
I'm a solid 230.
I was going through
a lot few years back,
and my aunt took me in.
It shaped me into
who I am today.
But she's definitely
the reason why
I stayed on the good track.
She made sure that
I was engaged in football.
My aunt was definitely
there for me
when a lot of people weren't.
Like I'm honestly okay
with being 5'11".
I'm okay with it, but...
-We're trying to hit six foot.
-If a girl ask--
if a girl asks,
six foot, guaranteed.
Cashmere has had a really rough
hand dealt to him in life.
You know,
he's witnessed his mother
physically abused
by his biological father.
His anger stems from
a lot of abuse towards him,
towards his siblings.
When we're going against a
team that's going in quads...
[Cash] Playing football, like
all that anger you build up,
it's like boom--
it all releases on every hit.
And that's just--
that's what I like.
He was at the gas station
and, look, it's not funny.
-[Cash] The murder station.
-Yeah, and then somebody was--
[Cash] I'm pumping the gas and
then, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.
I'm like, what?
I'm standing there looking
over like, was that a shooting?
[laughter]
The community that we're in,
sometimes it's not safe.
And so I'm gonna get
to the next level
and I'm gonna get successful
in playing football,
and I'm gonna
get my family--
I'm gonna get my family
out of these areas.
Like everything that like
has gone on in my life,
I've used football as my
outlet,
and sometimes
it's not effective
because sometimes I still take
it out on the wrong things.
But a lot of times,
like that's just...
that's my way of escaping
for a little bit.
[Jessica] He's determined,
he's like I will be D1,
and he deserves it.
He deserves people in
his corner that are gonna
support him because he's
just--because he's Cash,
he's Cashmere.
[operator]
...to refuse this call.
This call is from
a correctional facility
and is subject
to monitoring and recording.
My boy.
[person] What's up, Shorty?
Yeah, boy I see you
shining or whatever.
It's been a minute since
I seen you though, huh?
I know. We ain't did no video
visit the whole time.
I'm gonna come up there
though.
I wish you could
come by yourself,
but you know you gotta be 18.
Hey, it's not that far away.
We got like what, two months?
-I know, right?
-Then I'll slide up there,
you know?
We going crazy, boy,
when I come home, boy...
-[Tae] Hey, I swear to God.
-Since you grown now.
I'm happy.
[Tae] My older brother,
like he been my best friend
like ever since
I could remember.
Like we did
everything together.
But it was one night
in the wintertime
my freshman year, he was like,
"Tell Mom come pick me up
and bring me home."
And when he got in the car,
like I could tell somethin'
was off.
He's just getting fidgety,
so I'm like,
something wrong.
[overlapping shouting]
We parked the car,
and six police cars
just surrounded us.
Assault rifles, pistols,
everything.
I knew his lifestyle already.
I knew everything about him.
About the situation--I don't
like how the police handled it.
[Marshawn] Okay, I'm putting
my hands behind my back.
[Tae] No asking, can I see ID,
can I see insurance?
None of that.
I see this white officer,
he had his actual gun out
and he was like ready to fire.
He's like, "Get out,
get out, get out,"
and just grabbing on him.
I just hear pow.
And another pow, pow.
They tased him three times.
[overlapping voices
echoing]
They opened my mom's door
and they slammed her
on the concrete
in the middle of the street.
And a lady officer,
she walked up to my brother
and she grabbed what was
off him, which was two guns.
So she grabbed him.
She's like,
"Do you see what
your son just had in the car?"
-Mom, I love you!
-Roll over!
Mom, I love y'all.
[Tae] We made eye contact
for like two seconds
and I see a teardrop and
it just...it kind of like
it was just hitting me deep.
I see them handcuff my brother
with his hands
behind his back,
but then they hogtied him.
[Marshawn] Hey, right now--
get in the video.
Hey Mom, I love you.
[Tae]
He was charged with possession
of a firearm, two counts.
Six and a half,
three on good behavior.
Matter of fact, yeah,
my graduation probably
you should be at though.
Yeah. 'Cause of all that--
that's every--
like your release date
gonna fall like
right around then, huh?
I'm gonna be honest, Tae,
like with all the, like,
fighting and stuff
I did in the beginning,
it kind of messed up my
chances of coming home early.
I live to see
what you gonna do
with your life, 'cause I feel
like you better than me.
You better off than
what I ever been, bro.
Like I ain't had my head
on my shoulders
the way you do at your age.
Yeah.
So now that I'm in
this situation I'm in,
I'm catching up now.
[Tae]
I'm not gonna lie, I'm not mad
that he got caught
with the guns,
but this is before
George Floyd.
This is before all of this.
And I'm witnessing it.
I done been in it.
I done witness all of this
like happen like, you know,
so I know they're not
lying with...
with all this police stuff,
all this racial stuff.
somber music
[thunder rumbling]
[coach] Go right,
go right, go right!
-[coach] Right there.
-[player] Set and...
[player] Go!
[Tae] Being a African American
man in the world now
is very, very dangerous.
Say, for example, like...
police brutality
and...and the pros
and cons of police.
When you in public,
you don't know
how a officer
can come up to you
and approach you
and handle you.
You just never know.
[player] Set...
[Rio] Yeah, I mean, it's a lot
going on right now,
but I say that we need
more Black police officers.
We need people
that's gonna keep it real.
We-we need people that's
gonna be there to help.
The police officers
we got right now don't care.
heavy music
[instrument buzzing]
[person] You know,
growing up as a Black kid,
you had to be very careful
what you do.
You know, some these
cop are trigger-happy,
so, you know, they just
need one excuse
for you to do something.
You seeing all these stories
coming out with these cops
just being a little, you know,
a little too trigger happy.
Why don't cops take the time
to...assess what's going on
instead of being so reactive?
When we talk about
institutional racism,
it's very live and well in the
Minneapolis Police Department.
[Wes] Sad thing is
they're not killing
Mexicans, Asians--they're
killing African Americans.
They're not killing
Africans either.
They're killing
African Americans.
You don't see Black folks
that grew up on the North side
going out and fucking--
police in Bloomington
or Farmingdale and shit--
killing they kids.
Make it make sense.
[scoffs]
[player] Set...
[player] Go.
[Tim] You know,
can't let the bad prosper,
the bad cops, you know.
We can't let them win.
[Plunkett] I might know
somebody in Eden Prairie,
which is a rich neighborhood.
Does that mean I'm not--
I can't be there?
You're gonna pull me over
'cause you see a Black face
and I ain't supposed
to be there?
That's not cool,
and that's why I tell him
if you get pulled over,
put your hands on
the fucking steering wheel
and let them run your name
through the computer,
'cause they can do that.
Don't reach for nothing.
They want any and every excuse
to pull you out the car
and fuck you up.
And most of us in here,
you know what I'm saying,
have gone through that.
And my man Wes
always say, man--
and it hit home
every time he say it--
I need to make it to the judge.
Let me make it to the judge.
That's it.
We gotta do
something different.
We've been doing
the same shit for years.
It's basically
the definition of insanity.
Keep doing the same shit
and getting no results.
Wait, set...go.
[Plunkett] Let's say we have
a quarterback controversy.
Who do you think we would
win the championship with?
Rio or him?
Talk to your kid!
[Plunkett] Huh?
I guarantee y'all
call Coach Chris.
I guarantee,
you'll call Coach Chris.
Don't smile now.
Matter of fact--
[player] He's gonna play
like Patrick Mahomes.
I'm Chris Johnson.
Everybody call me Coach Chris.
I coach football.
Here in the city,
I coach D. Hill.
He was a third grade
quarterback
that was tearing the city up.
I--you is!
He can hear you.
[Coach Chris]
As a freshman, I told Rick
D. Hill gonna be
your starting quarterback.
I been telling
y'all for years.
Y'all just watch.
That's what I been
saying all year!
[Coach Chris] I watched the kid
grow from a little bitty boy
on and off the field to him
like my son, you know.
And D. Hill my quarterback.
Tonio
my favorite football player.
They're always together.
Always, always together.
Everything together.
Tonio Jackson
is the best football player
I've coached ever.
Tonio moved here
from St. Louis.
He didn't really
know too many people.
[laughs] It was like
after the second practice,
"Can I come to your house?"
"Yeah, you can come over.
Come on."
That ended up leading
to all the other kids:
"Can I come spend the night?
Can I come over?"
[laughter]
Our games used to be
Saturday mornings,
so I used to kidnap
all my key players.
[laughs] "Hey,
I'm coming to pick him up.
"He gonna spend night with me
so we be ready
for the game in the morning."
D. Hill,
your favorite quarterback
sleeping on my couch.
[background chatter]
[Coach Chris] Today we out here
celebrating
my man birthday.
Today he would've
been 16 years young.
We would've been partying,
kicking in the yard,
you know how we get down.
Kick it.
One, two, three.
[all] Happy birthday!
-Let 'em go.
-[person] Let go.
[Coach Chris] Tonio died
in December last year.
He end up having a...
a overdose from a bad pill.
15-year-old kid that's just
curious about something,
that seen some rappers or
somebody do it on a video,
and unfortunately
cost my baby his life.
[player] Love you.
[DeShaun] Tonio passed away
off of pills and fentanyl.
I didn't know
he was doing all that.
Like it was nothing he had
going on for him to do that,
so I was like, why?
Why he do that?
Like, he like my motivation.
Keep going.
[Coach Chris]
Come here, D. Hill.
Look, he gonna cover his face
up--my baby really is cryin'.
-[DeShaun] You know.
-I know, baby, I know.
It's all good, my boy.
It's all good, my boy.
It's all good.
This world that we in
right now
is horrible.
Horrible.
Un--the most unfortunate
things happen.
So we try to tell him,
stay out the way.
Stay into positive things,
and then when
it still happens, it's like
what do you tell a kid now?
What do you tell him now?
heavy music
Sometimes them boys
just need a peace of mind.
Everybody need
a peace of mind.
And if they feel like my house
is they peace of mind,
pshh, then I'm all for them
coming to have a peace of mind.
[somber vocalizations]
percussive music
[Adams] So the biggest factor
to get in the US Bank Stadium
is regular season record.
Last year's Fridley game,
I think we were caught up
in what our previous
success was,
and we got punched
in the mouth.
This season, we gotta be there.
We gotta be in the semifinals.
That's what gets us
inside the US Bank.
[overlapping chatter]
dramatic music
[player shouting indistinctly]
Are you ready?
[players] Hell, yeah!
Hell, yeah!
P-O-
L-A-
R-S!
Polars!
[Adams] We're a group of men
that are trying to
give the same opportunity
to these kids
that they have in any suburban
school or any other state.
When it comes to
college opportunities,
I feel that if I don't get
those kids
to the US Bank Stadium
and to the
state championship,
that they're not
gonna be able to be seen
by all these schools.
These schools don't want to
come to North Minneapolis,
but they'll come to
the US Bank stadium
and watch these kids play.
We can't have kids
that are all 4.0s,
rush for 2,000 yards,
pass for 4,000 yards,
model students,
model citizens.
But--we always have a but--
those kids across the river
and those kids
in other suburban schools
don't gotta go
through none of that.
Those coaches will go
straight into those schools
and give those kids
scholarship offers
like it's nothing.
I figure the only way
that we can showcase our kids
the right way is if
we're underneath the lights
on a prime time type deal.
[crowd chatter]
dramatic musical sting
[heartbeat thumping]
exciting music
[intense music continues]
Let's go, let's go, let's go!
It don't matter--
they can't get hit
in the head, period.
[whistle blows]
Catch the damn ball!
[person] Come on, now.
[Adams] Don't let up.
So what?
We're up.
That don't mean nothing.
It's zero-zero right now.
This is y'all house, man.
Instead of them trying to
beat one or two guys,
they gotta beat all 50
of y'all.
They gotta be like, "Damn, we
don't know who's got the play,
'cause anybody can beat us."
exciting music
Boom! Boom!
[spectators chanting]
[cheerleaders chanting]
[whistle blows]
intense music
[coach]
We are in goal line now!
Right the blitz!
Start running the ball!
[coach] Oh!
Oh, shit.
Oh, shit!
[Adams]
Come on, come on, come on.
Let's go.
[player] Go get it!
[crowd cheering]
[buzzer]
somber music
[DeShaun sobbing]
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
Listen, listen, listen,
listen, listen, listen, listen,
listen, listen, listen.
You're okay, you're okay.
You're okay, all right?
Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
That's a hell of
a game you had.
Hell of a game.
Don't hang your head.
You hear me?
We got a long season,
and if you play like that,
there's nobody that's gonna
be able to beat us.
All right?
We good!
You good.
You hear me?
You good, boy.
If 21 points against
a 4, 18 is doing bad...
I'm okay with that.
We have a young team.
We have
a young team.
But on the bright side
of that
is that our young team
is growing up quickly.
So take this loss
as a learning lesson.
Hell of a job, hell of a
job, man, I'll take that.
[Adams]
The North side is our home.
Yeah, we have issues
in this community,
but we are charged to
protect these kids.
As simple as that.
We want to teach
these kids how to win.
We want to teach
these kids how to lose.
But most importantly,
we want to keep them alive.
[indistinct police
radio chatter]
heavy music
[sirens wailing]
[indistinct radio chatter]
I'm a police officer
for North Minneapolis
and a coach for
the North High School.
Where are you supposed
to be at, Jeremiah?
I was a cop for
Minneapolis Police Department
for 20 years.
We were driving to the ball.
We weren't attacking
getting there.
I'm Inspector Charles Adams,
4th precinct,
Minneapolis on the North side.
Don't fucking touch me.
Yeah, we're gonna
have to build trust
after George Floyd's death.
But there's always been
a tension
between law enforcement
and our community,
African American,
our community.
[overlapping shouting]
[indistinct police
radio chatter]
I am Acting Lieutenant
with Metro
Transit Police Department.
[person] I can't breathe.
[Lawrence] There are shitty
cops out there.
I'll admit it--I'll be
the first one to admit it.
But you can't let bad cops--
we can't let them win.
[crowd chanting]
Hands up! Don't shoot me!
[Plunkett] I'm not wanted
by the white side.
I'm not wanted by
the Black side.
If I go to a scene,
if it's Black folks,
oh, I'm a Uncle Tom,
I'm a coon
and this and that and
"you a sellout" or whatever.
But not all police
officers are bad.
And that's what the community
gotta see...
dramatic chords
Before you judge
anything about me,
get to know me.
You can't trust me because
you think I think like them.
You don't know how I think.
moody percussive music
[police radio chatter]
vocalization
[police radio chatter
continues]
dramatic music
vocalizing
[student] Why does everything
have to happen
when I get into high school?
First COVID, then all these
protests start breaking out.
George Floyd, all the rioting
that was going on--
I was just trying
to tell myself
like I can't get caught up
in all of this.
I was looking for
another family,
another team
to call my family,
and I found it.
Being in streets has never
really been an option,
but I just make sure
I ain't around none of that.
A lotta bad things
going on around here.
It's scary, but I don't--
I ain't scared.
edgy music
[person] You know, just
yesterday we had, uh,
about three homicides.
You know, we had a barbershop
that was shot up.
Then they found somebody
just a block away
shot in their apartment,
and then somebody
later on last night
got shot
at the convenience store,
So it's-it's nonstop.
You know, the violence
is crazy and, I mean,
it makes you appreciate
coaching football
and playing football
a lot more
just because we focus on
something else.
edgy, percussive music
[person] We lost a player
last year,
and we lost another one
several years ago.
Reality is,
they're just trying to live
and trying to survive.
[leader] Dear Lord, the battles
we go through in life...
[group] Dear Lord, the battles
we go through in life...
[leader] We ask for
a chance that's fair.
[group] We ask for
a chance that's fair.
[leader] A chance to
equal our strides.
[group] A chance to
equal our strides.
-A chance to do or dare.
-A chance to do or dare.
-If we should win.
-If we should win.
-Let it be by the code.
-Let it be by the code.
[leader] With faith
and honor held high.
[group] With faith
and honor held high.
-If we should lose.
-If we should lose.
-We stand by the road.
-We stand by the road.
-Cheer as the winners go by.
-Cheer as the winners go by.
-[leader] Day by day.
-[group] Day by day.
-We get better and better.
-We get better and better.
-Till we can't be beat.
-Till we can't be beat.
-Won't be beat.
-Won't be beat.
Whoo!
vocalizing
[person] Well, how was
the movies last night?
Well, we didn't
go to the movies.
They said there was shooting.
Yeah.
I'm glad you wasn't there.
I was so scared, boy.
Mm-hmm.
Do you got your eye
on any ladies?
[DeShaun laughs]
Yeah.
I did see her that one time
when we was at--
[DeShaun] Oh, it was
at the game.
Yeah.
Yeah, I ain't with
none of that.
Why?
Because you don't need
no kids right now.
You only 15 years old.
You don't need no girlfriend.
You got your whole life
ahead of you.
She 15 years old too.
Yeah, but these girls
is hot out here.
-Too hot.
-She on the A honor roll?
-You need to ask her.
-Exactly.
Your education,
your knowledge,
everything
to get up outta here,
'cause good grades make--
take you a long way.
Right, right?
I tell you that every day.
I'll tell y'all too.
Right?
What do I tell y'all every day?
[child] Take a shower?
[laughter]
[Tuesday] Besides that,
the educational part.
[Hill]
Education is what?
-[child] The key to success.
-Exactly.
-[Tuesday] Yeah.
-Oh, yeah.
-Most definitely.
-Definitely.
He in a straight
line to do that.
All-all we gotta do
is keep him out of trouble.
Yep.
[Hill]
That's hard too though.
[Tuesday]
The hardest part for me
is him going to,
like, the bus stop,
catching the bus for school,
going to the corner store.
'Cause I don't
know if it's gonna be
the last time
I'm gonna see him,
'cause it's that bad
around here.
So I pretty much take him
and all his friends
wherever they need to go.
If they need to go to practice,
I'm taking them to practice.
I'm picking them up
from practice.
I'm picking them up
from school,
I'm taking them to school.
Because
I don't want them to be
caught at the wrong place
at the wrong time.
That's my biggest fear.
moody music
[player] I can't wait
till this season start.
I been waiting all...
putting in all this work.
Fact.
How you been feeling though?
How you feel about this season?
-[mumbling] Good.
-What?
Good.
[DeShaun] Mm?
-Yes.
-[laughs]
-High stake.
-What he be saying?
[person] when I seen
the roster, I was like,
"Oh, we finna
get our ass kicked."
[both laugh]
Shit, I'm like,
it's gonna be a struggle.
We got a young quarterback.
It's gonna be
a fucking struggle,
because
that's where it starts.
If your quarterback is shaky,
it doesn't even matter
if you got seniors or not,
because
they go off of his energy.
But D. Hill
is gonna be a monster.
[person]
He's young and he's quiet,
and he doesn't necessarily
always carry that...
that quarterback swagger
or that quarterback
kind of mentality
to be able
to speak up and lead.
But he's starting to--
he's starting to get
a little bit more of that.
[barber] Yeah.
He's starting to
become an asshole.
[both chuckling]
[background chatter]
There ya go.
Push it back, push it back.
Hey, if your number's here,
just grab any number.
Number eight,
what'd you-what'd you grab?
[player] Thirteen.
-I got thirteen.
-Thirteen?
North High plays a big part
of North Minneapolis.
It's always been
the central place
of basketball, you know.
All the top athletes
would attend North
to play basketball.
And we've developed
in the last few years
a successful football program.
I became the head coach
in 2010.
Never won the conference
or the city championship,
and I was like,
I think we can do more.
I think we can do more.
[coach] Set, go.
Set, go.
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme,
gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.
Go.
Everyone's,
"Oh, it's just North."
It's what you hear.
Oh, it's just a bunch of
hood rats that are, you know,
trying to do their thing.
That's why it's personal.
It's like, "No, eff you.
Like we're gonna
show you who we are."
percussive music
[coach] Yeah!
[Adams]
Man, US Bank Stadium.
It is home
to the state champions title.
All day every day,
that is the end game.
I don't-I don't schedule shit
in between that or like,
no, no.
Wyclef said "Gone to
November," play to November.
If it doesn't happen, it don't
happen, but guess what.
It's gonna happen
until it don't.
Get on the white, shut up,
And when they call y'all to
get out there, get out there.
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah...
Tae-Zhan Gilchrist,
number 60 starting guard,
goes by Tae.
[father] Good morning, son.
[Adams] His father has been
the number one role model
main influencer in Tae's life.
We got a bad name
in our culture
about our fathers
not being there.
And that's why I like
to bring you fishing.
We sit and talk about stuff
that we don't talk about
around nobody else.
[Tae] My dad fought for me
for five or six years,
and he finally got
full custody of me.
I think my dad fought for me
because he wanted to prepare
me for certain obstacles
that men will face.
[Adams] Cashmere Grunau,
starting linebacker
number 30.
We call him Cash Money.
[laughs]
Cash bleeds blue, man.
Like he just--he wants to
give you everything he got,
and I love coaching
a kid like that.
[Cash]
Football, it's my way out.
It's my way of repaying
my family
for everything
that they've done for me.
[players] Oh!
[Adams] Mario Sanders is the
starting receiver number one,
but we call him Rio.
[Rio] I feel like I can do
a lot more on the field.
energetic music
Our plan right now
is to go to college,
play football.
[Adams] We had always
wanted to dib and dab
of him playing quarterback
'cause we just knew
he was a great athlete.
[person]
This is so important,
all these colleges
that's looking at you.
we need the big colleges.
[Adams]
They were locked in this week.
Like Rio never
gets on the chat saying,
"Let's go, let's get it,"
like--
But I told you
him and Meiko came up
and he said,
"Can we play defense?"
I'm like, "No, you're
not playing defense."
[coach] Back up! Boom!
Whoo!
[Adams] De'Meiko Anderson,
starting receiver number two.
We call him Meiko,
aka Freaky Meik.
[laughing]
You know,
he's Rio's best friend
and our number one receiver.
energetic music
vocalization
[person] These little dudes
been kicking with each other
since they were six,
seven years old.
Look at they brotherhood, bro.
You can't separate them.
[Plunkett]
Deshaun, D. Hill, I call him.
He's just so smooth,
laid back.
He pisses me off
every now and then
'cause he has
this just blank look like...
And it's like,
are you listening?
Are you comprehending
anything?
And he is,
but he's the type of person---
so am I, I don't
trust a lot of people--
he don't trust a lot of people.
[person] Oh--foul!
[Plunkett]
Receiver, go get the ball!
What's this [indistinct] shit?
[player] Last point,
last point.
[Plunkett] DeShaun seen a lot
of people getting murdered,
some of his friends
and stuff like that.
People getting beat up,
ran over, shot at, you know.
I been through that.
That's traumatizing as a kid.
You don't forget that shit,
you know,
and I can see it in him.
He ain't forgetting, and
he's never gonna forget it.
I had to break down
the barriers
to let him know
that I respect you.
I wanna show you that
you can trust me.
How I can do that is just by
being vulnerable, you know?
That's the only way
a person can trust you
and you trust them
because you gotta show them
that you can be
vulnerable at one point.
[DeShaun] Go.
At first I didn't want to
go to North Side
'cause I thought
like too many distractions.
Like everybody from elementary
and middle school
was going to North.
I didn't wanna be
around all that.
I wanted to get my work done.
My goal is make it to NFL.
Move my family out of
Minnesota to somewhere else.
Build a house,
have a lotta money.
-Go!
-[Plunkett] Get out, get out,
get out, get out, get out!
edgy music
That's a great pass.
That's a great pass.
That's a great
pass.
[DeShaun] I wanna take my
team to state championship
and win.
All we gotta do
is like stay focused,
worry about the next game.
Don't get hurt or none of that.
Just win.
[leader] Dear Lord, the battles
we go through in life...
[players] Dear Lord the battles
we go through in life...
[leader] We ask for
a chance that's fair.
[players] We ask for
a chance that's fair.
[leader] A chance to
equal our strides.
[players] A chance to
equal our strides.
-A chance to do or dare.
-A chance to do or dare.
-If we should win.
-If we should win.
-Let it be by the code.
-Let it be by the code.
[leader] With faith
and honor held high.
[players] With faith
and honor held high.
-If we should lose.
-If we should lose.
-We stand by the road.
-We stand by the road.
-Cheer as the winners go by.
-Cheer as the winners go by.
-[leader] Day by day.
-[players] Day by day.
-We get better and better.
-We get better and better.
-Till we can't be beat.
-Till we can't be beat.
-Won't be beat.
-Won't be beat.
Whoo!
percussive music
[reporter] Violent crime
in Minneapolis
spiked last year
after George Floyd
was killed on Memorial Day.
And so far this year,
the violent crime numbers
are outpacing 2020.
There have been 34 homicides
in Minneapolis so far in 2021,
up 89% from this time
last year.
[producer] Where in relation
to where we are now
did George Floyd die?
Uh, 30th & Chicago.
And that is off limits.
They done blocked it off
to where they didn't even
let people come in there.
[producer] When you say "they,"
do you mean police
have blocked it off or...
-Nope.
-So people blocked it off.
People.
Police ain't even
allowed up in there.
moody music
The tension
in North Minneapolis
with police
and the community is intense.
[overlapping shouting]
But I honestly had no idea
that things would unfold
the way they did.
My city and my neighborhood
was destroyed.
[siren wailing]
[people whooping]
So that's our field.
[gunshots]
You heard that, right?
That was--they shooting.
Yeah, that's...yep.
That's why we ain't gonna go--
we ain't gonna go across there.
The football field is in the
central of North Minneapolis,
and it's basically
in the middle of
the gang wars
and the gang feuds.
Oh, there they go right now.
Swags. Yep.
See they deploying
out of the precinct,
'cause they going
into them shots.
That's where they about
to go to right now.
But the toughest part
is where we were just at
by that--where the field
was at.
[police siren blaring]
[TV plays in background]
[Plunkett] Back in the '90s,
most of the gang members,
they was actually fightin'
each other for blocks.
They was actually fightin'
each other for a territory.
And when you had that
territory, that block,
that's where your money came.
Everybody
was killing everybody
over money pretty much.
But it's different now.
'Cause now
it's the young kids,
it's the 18, 19-year-olds,
and they're just killing
because
somebody was dissing
my homie on Twitter
or Facebook
or whatever the case may be.
So now motherfuckers
just don't give a fuck.
No matter who's in the
background.
Start blasting.
They don't care about shit.
That's the difference
now and then.
It's just-it's just crazy.
Just fucking crazy.
[Adams] The gang violence
and just the...
like the lawlessness
and like guys, you know,
eye for an eye
shooting one another
and, you know,
in broad daylight--
that's something
that I've never seen before.
You know, at least back in
the day when I was growing up,
it wasn't like that.
Now it's a lot more brazen
and automatic guns, you know.
And I didn't see that
growing up.
A couple of the students got
rolled up on, uh, yesterday.
Walking through the park...
with dudes in ski mask.
You know, so...
it's definitely--
it's definitely out there.
From my experience
when I was around that age
coming from
the same environment,
I feel like it's more just lack
of resources, lack of fathers.
Just feeling like if Mama
can't give it to me,
I'm gonna get it on my own.
And we learn that young,
at a young age,
to self-preserve
and to survive by yourself.
You know what I'm saying?
And go get the things you need,
necessities.
And sometimes
it turn into taking.
But if you had that man
in your life...
To teach you how to
deal with your emotions.
-To teach you how to talk.
-Yeah, to talk it out.
Channel that anger,
you gonna be good.
Like I said, most of these
kids out here don't have that.
-Yep.
-And then when they go
out there to their homies,
their homies is in
the same predicament.
-[person] Same predicament.
-So they're emotional.
They're out here
and they're pissed off
because they don't have it
and they don't--
don't know how to channel it.
That's basically what it is.
They don't know
how to channel the anger.
[Adams] Most of the community
around North,
they protect
that football field.
That's kind of like
a sanctuary
because when football games
are going on,
they want to be safe.
If you have people that's
getting murdered at the field
or around the corner
or whatever,
I mean,
North would literally die,
'cause no fans would wanna
come to the game.
So the community,
in some aspects,
protect their own.
It just really needs a village.
You know what I'm saying?
People that--like men
like Rick and OA,
you know what I'm saying?
They probably don't look
at it like they fathers,
but y'all fathers in your
own way to these boys.
Y'all saving them, even if
it's a small piece of they day.
You know what I'm saying?
You saving them.
You saving them some way,
you know what I'm saying,
that they gonna look
at life different.
heavy music
[Plunkett]
You got homicide rates up,
you got carjackings up,
you got shootings up.
What are we gonna do
with the community
and the police together
to stop this shit?
[indistinct chatter]
quiet music
[chatter, laughter]
I can't believe I'm gonna
be in my last year
playing in North jersey.
Like it really went fast.
I was just
sixth grade yesterday.
I always talk to
Meiko about it.
Like we really seniors.
I can't believe it still.
-[player] Can we get Papa John?
-Yeah.
[Rio] Me and him clicking
probably the best thing
that could happen,
'cause we had the same goals.
Like we never wanted
to be in the streets.
We always wanted to
have good grades.
I don't know, it's just
like I met the same person.
Out of all group of kids
it was just like
us two was always
the ones that was close.
[Rio] Everybody just ask,
like, y'all brothers?
Are y'all brothers?
We just say yeah.
I've been in North Minneapolis
all my life.
It's really great to me
'cause everybody's close.
Everybody know each other.
You know, like when you
go out in the community,
you see people
that you see every day.
I mean, it's a great community.
It's just a lot of
violence, you know.
I said, "What?"
Blood.
moody music
[whistle blows]
Hey, cheerleaders,
can you help us
get ready for the game
tomorrow?
-Whoo!
-Yeah!
And then football,
I'm gonna have you guys
stand under this basket
right here.
We're looking at about
80 to 85% Black students.
I would say our identity
as a school
from a cultural perspective
is Black.
And the way
that I've defined it
to the parents
and the community
is that we are
unapologetically Black
and we embrace it.
-We fired up.
-We fired up.
-We fired up!
-We fired up!
[Mauri] You'll oftentimes
hear me refer to North
as the dopest Blackest school
in the state of Minnesota.
We thrive in it
and we get life from it.
[cheers and applause]
[school bell rings]
I think of the kids
as not just their principal
but also kind of
from a mom's perspective.
You know,
I can't hear you guys.
Whatever happened
on the way here,
you are welcome here,
and this space is yours
and you are safe here
and you are loved here.
And we're not
burning nothing down.
We're only lifting
everything up.
North High School
is actually like a family.
Most of my culture from North
have the same backgrounds
and they've been
through the same things
that I done been through.
I'm gonna teach you
how to talk to a girl
when you like one.
In Minneapolis,
the city doesn't see it
as this big beautiful campus.
I've heard visiting teams
get off their bus
and go,
"This looks like a prison."
[game sounds]
[Mauri]
Morning, everybody.
People started to feel like,
you know what,
I love the school,
I really do,
but I just don't
love the area around it.
We had, you know,
some ongoing crime issues.
When you go to certain
schools like ours,
eventually over time they just
start to shut everything down
because they can't
control what's happening
outside of the school,
and what's happening
outside of the school
is permeating the school.
So they just shut
everything down.
[Adams] It was to the point
to where it was
under 100 students
in the school
and people in the community
and school board members
wanted to shut down.
[Mauri]
North High students and staff,
remember, you are loved
more than you know.
You are braver
than you can imagine.
You are more beautiful
beyond what you can see.
And you are stronger
than you sometimes feel.
We have a lot of work left to
do today, so let's get to it.
There's some
apple juice for you.
They have me as 5'8" and 180.
-No!
-I weigh way more than 180.
Bro, what?
I weigh way more than that.
I'm 230.
I'm a solid 230.
I was going through
a lot few years back,
and my aunt took me in.
It shaped me into
who I am today.
But she's definitely
the reason why
I stayed on the good track.
She made sure that
I was engaged in football.
My aunt was definitely
there for me
when a lot of people weren't.
Like I'm honestly okay
with being 5'11".
I'm okay with it, but...
-We're trying to hit six foot.
-If a girl ask--
if a girl asks,
six foot, guaranteed.
Cashmere has had a really rough
hand dealt to him in life.
You know,
he's witnessed his mother
physically abused
by his biological father.
His anger stems from
a lot of abuse towards him,
towards his siblings.
When we're going against a
team that's going in quads...
[Cash] Playing football, like
all that anger you build up,
it's like boom--
it all releases on every hit.
And that's just--
that's what I like.
He was at the gas station
and, look, it's not funny.
-[Cash] The murder station.
-Yeah, and then somebody was--
[Cash] I'm pumping the gas and
then, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.
I'm like, what?
I'm standing there looking
over like, was that a shooting?
[laughter]
The community that we're in,
sometimes it's not safe.
And so I'm gonna get
to the next level
and I'm gonna get successful
in playing football,
and I'm gonna
get my family--
I'm gonna get my family
out of these areas.
Like everything that like
has gone on in my life,
I've used football as my
outlet,
and sometimes
it's not effective
because sometimes I still take
it out on the wrong things.
But a lot of times,
like that's just...
that's my way of escaping
for a little bit.
[Jessica] He's determined,
he's like I will be D1,
and he deserves it.
He deserves people in
his corner that are gonna
support him because he's
just--because he's Cash,
he's Cashmere.
[operator]
...to refuse this call.
This call is from
a correctional facility
and is subject
to monitoring and recording.
My boy.
[person] What's up, Shorty?
Yeah, boy I see you
shining or whatever.
It's been a minute since
I seen you though, huh?
I know. We ain't did no video
visit the whole time.
I'm gonna come up there
though.
I wish you could
come by yourself,
but you know you gotta be 18.
Hey, it's not that far away.
We got like what, two months?
-I know, right?
-Then I'll slide up there,
you know?
We going crazy, boy,
when I come home, boy...
-[Tae] Hey, I swear to God.
-Since you grown now.
I'm happy.
[Tae] My older brother,
like he been my best friend
like ever since
I could remember.
Like we did
everything together.
But it was one night
in the wintertime
my freshman year, he was like,
"Tell Mom come pick me up
and bring me home."
And when he got in the car,
like I could tell somethin'
was off.
He's just getting fidgety,
so I'm like,
something wrong.
[overlapping shouting]
We parked the car,
and six police cars
just surrounded us.
Assault rifles, pistols,
everything.
I knew his lifestyle already.
I knew everything about him.
About the situation--I don't
like how the police handled it.
[Marshawn] Okay, I'm putting
my hands behind my back.
[Tae] No asking, can I see ID,
can I see insurance?
None of that.
I see this white officer,
he had his actual gun out
and he was like ready to fire.
He's like, "Get out,
get out, get out,"
and just grabbing on him.
I just hear pow.
And another pow, pow.
They tased him three times.
[overlapping voices
echoing]
They opened my mom's door
and they slammed her
on the concrete
in the middle of the street.
And a lady officer,
she walked up to my brother
and she grabbed what was
off him, which was two guns.
So she grabbed him.
She's like,
"Do you see what
your son just had in the car?"
-Mom, I love you!
-Roll over!
Mom, I love y'all.
[Tae] We made eye contact
for like two seconds
and I see a teardrop and
it just...it kind of like
it was just hitting me deep.
I see them handcuff my brother
with his hands
behind his back,
but then they hogtied him.
[Marshawn] Hey, right now--
get in the video.
Hey Mom, I love you.
[Tae]
He was charged with possession
of a firearm, two counts.
Six and a half,
three on good behavior.
Matter of fact, yeah,
my graduation probably
you should be at though.
Yeah. 'Cause of all that--
that's every--
like your release date
gonna fall like
right around then, huh?
I'm gonna be honest, Tae,
like with all the, like,
fighting and stuff
I did in the beginning,
it kind of messed up my
chances of coming home early.
I live to see
what you gonna do
with your life, 'cause I feel
like you better than me.
You better off than
what I ever been, bro.
Like I ain't had my head
on my shoulders
the way you do at your age.
Yeah.
So now that I'm in
this situation I'm in,
I'm catching up now.
[Tae]
I'm not gonna lie, I'm not mad
that he got caught
with the guns,
but this is before
George Floyd.
This is before all of this.
And I'm witnessing it.
I done been in it.
I done witness all of this
like happen like, you know,
so I know they're not
lying with...
with all this police stuff,
all this racial stuff.
somber music
[thunder rumbling]
[coach] Go right,
go right, go right!
-[coach] Right there.
-[player] Set and...
[player] Go!
[Tae] Being a African American
man in the world now
is very, very dangerous.
Say, for example, like...
police brutality
and...and the pros
and cons of police.
When you in public,
you don't know
how a officer
can come up to you
and approach you
and handle you.
You just never know.
[player] Set...
[Rio] Yeah, I mean, it's a lot
going on right now,
but I say that we need
more Black police officers.
We need people
that's gonna keep it real.
We-we need people that's
gonna be there to help.
The police officers
we got right now don't care.
heavy music
[instrument buzzing]
[person] You know,
growing up as a Black kid,
you had to be very careful
what you do.
You know, some these
cop are trigger-happy,
so, you know, they just
need one excuse
for you to do something.
You seeing all these stories
coming out with these cops
just being a little, you know,
a little too trigger happy.
Why don't cops take the time
to...assess what's going on
instead of being so reactive?
When we talk about
institutional racism,
it's very live and well in the
Minneapolis Police Department.
[Wes] Sad thing is
they're not killing
Mexicans, Asians--they're
killing African Americans.
They're not killing
Africans either.
They're killing
African Americans.
You don't see Black folks
that grew up on the North side
going out and fucking--
police in Bloomington
or Farmingdale and shit--
killing they kids.
Make it make sense.
[scoffs]
[player] Set...
[player] Go.
[Tim] You know,
can't let the bad prosper,
the bad cops, you know.
We can't let them win.
[Plunkett] I might know
somebody in Eden Prairie,
which is a rich neighborhood.
Does that mean I'm not--
I can't be there?
You're gonna pull me over
'cause you see a Black face
and I ain't supposed
to be there?
That's not cool,
and that's why I tell him
if you get pulled over,
put your hands on
the fucking steering wheel
and let them run your name
through the computer,
'cause they can do that.
Don't reach for nothing.
They want any and every excuse
to pull you out the car
and fuck you up.
And most of us in here,
you know what I'm saying,
have gone through that.
And my man Wes
always say, man--
and it hit home
every time he say it--
I need to make it to the judge.
Let me make it to the judge.
That's it.
We gotta do
something different.
We've been doing
the same shit for years.
It's basically
the definition of insanity.
Keep doing the same shit
and getting no results.
Wait, set...go.
[Plunkett] Let's say we have
a quarterback controversy.
Who do you think we would
win the championship with?
Rio or him?
Talk to your kid!
[Plunkett] Huh?
I guarantee y'all
call Coach Chris.
I guarantee,
you'll call Coach Chris.
Don't smile now.
Matter of fact--
[player] He's gonna play
like Patrick Mahomes.
I'm Chris Johnson.
Everybody call me Coach Chris.
I coach football.
Here in the city,
I coach D. Hill.
He was a third grade
quarterback
that was tearing the city up.
I--you is!
He can hear you.
[Coach Chris]
As a freshman, I told Rick
D. Hill gonna be
your starting quarterback.
I been telling
y'all for years.
Y'all just watch.
That's what I been
saying all year!
[Coach Chris] I watched the kid
grow from a little bitty boy
on and off the field to him
like my son, you know.
And D. Hill my quarterback.
Tonio
my favorite football player.
They're always together.
Always, always together.
Everything together.
Tonio Jackson
is the best football player
I've coached ever.
Tonio moved here
from St. Louis.
He didn't really
know too many people.
[laughs] It was like
after the second practice,
"Can I come to your house?"
"Yeah, you can come over.
Come on."
That ended up leading
to all the other kids:
"Can I come spend the night?
Can I come over?"
[laughter]
Our games used to be
Saturday mornings,
so I used to kidnap
all my key players.
[laughs] "Hey,
I'm coming to pick him up.
"He gonna spend night with me
so we be ready
for the game in the morning."
D. Hill,
your favorite quarterback
sleeping on my couch.
[background chatter]
[Coach Chris] Today we out here
celebrating
my man birthday.
Today he would've
been 16 years young.
We would've been partying,
kicking in the yard,
you know how we get down.
Kick it.
One, two, three.
[all] Happy birthday!
-Let 'em go.
-[person] Let go.
[Coach Chris] Tonio died
in December last year.
He end up having a...
a overdose from a bad pill.
15-year-old kid that's just
curious about something,
that seen some rappers or
somebody do it on a video,
and unfortunately
cost my baby his life.
[player] Love you.
[DeShaun] Tonio passed away
off of pills and fentanyl.
I didn't know
he was doing all that.
Like it was nothing he had
going on for him to do that,
so I was like, why?
Why he do that?
Like, he like my motivation.
Keep going.
[Coach Chris]
Come here, D. Hill.
Look, he gonna cover his face
up--my baby really is cryin'.
-[DeShaun] You know.
-I know, baby, I know.
It's all good, my boy.
It's all good, my boy.
It's all good.
This world that we in
right now
is horrible.
Horrible.
Un--the most unfortunate
things happen.
So we try to tell him,
stay out the way.
Stay into positive things,
and then when
it still happens, it's like
what do you tell a kid now?
What do you tell him now?
heavy music
Sometimes them boys
just need a peace of mind.
Everybody need
a peace of mind.
And if they feel like my house
is they peace of mind,
pshh, then I'm all for them
coming to have a peace of mind.
[somber vocalizations]
percussive music
[Adams] So the biggest factor
to get in the US Bank Stadium
is regular season record.
Last year's Fridley game,
I think we were caught up
in what our previous
success was,
and we got punched
in the mouth.
This season, we gotta be there.
We gotta be in the semifinals.
That's what gets us
inside the US Bank.
[overlapping chatter]
dramatic music
[player shouting indistinctly]
Are you ready?
[players] Hell, yeah!
Hell, yeah!
P-O-
L-A-
R-S!
Polars!
[Adams] We're a group of men
that are trying to
give the same opportunity
to these kids
that they have in any suburban
school or any other state.
When it comes to
college opportunities,
I feel that if I don't get
those kids
to the US Bank Stadium
and to the
state championship,
that they're not
gonna be able to be seen
by all these schools.
These schools don't want to
come to North Minneapolis,
but they'll come to
the US Bank stadium
and watch these kids play.
We can't have kids
that are all 4.0s,
rush for 2,000 yards,
pass for 4,000 yards,
model students,
model citizens.
But--we always have a but--
those kids across the river
and those kids
in other suburban schools
don't gotta go
through none of that.
Those coaches will go
straight into those schools
and give those kids
scholarship offers
like it's nothing.
I figure the only way
that we can showcase our kids
the right way is if
we're underneath the lights
on a prime time type deal.
[crowd chatter]
dramatic musical sting
[heartbeat thumping]
exciting music
[intense music continues]
Let's go, let's go, let's go!
It don't matter--
they can't get hit
in the head, period.
[whistle blows]
Catch the damn ball!
[person] Come on, now.
[Adams] Don't let up.
So what?
We're up.
That don't mean nothing.
It's zero-zero right now.
This is y'all house, man.
Instead of them trying to
beat one or two guys,
they gotta beat all 50
of y'all.
They gotta be like, "Damn, we
don't know who's got the play,
'cause anybody can beat us."
exciting music
Boom! Boom!
[spectators chanting]
[cheerleaders chanting]
[whistle blows]
intense music
[coach]
We are in goal line now!
Right the blitz!
Start running the ball!
[coach] Oh!
Oh, shit.
Oh, shit!
[Adams]
Come on, come on, come on.
Let's go.
[player] Go get it!
[crowd cheering]
[buzzer]
somber music
[DeShaun sobbing]
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
Listen, listen, listen,
listen, listen, listen, listen,
listen, listen, listen.
You're okay, you're okay.
You're okay, all right?
Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
That's a hell of
a game you had.
Hell of a game.
Don't hang your head.
You hear me?
We got a long season,
and if you play like that,
there's nobody that's gonna
be able to beat us.
All right?
We good!
You good.
You hear me?
You good, boy.
If 21 points against
a 4, 18 is doing bad...
I'm okay with that.
We have a young team.
We have
a young team.
But on the bright side
of that
is that our young team
is growing up quickly.
So take this loss
as a learning lesson.
Hell of a job, hell of a
job, man, I'll take that.
[Adams]
The North side is our home.
Yeah, we have issues
in this community,
but we are charged to
protect these kids.
As simple as that.
We want to teach
these kids how to win.
We want to teach
these kids how to lose.
But most importantly,
we want to keep them alive.
[indistinct police
radio chatter]
heavy music
[sirens wailing]
[indistinct radio chatter]
I'm a police officer
for North Minneapolis
and a coach for
the North High School.
Where are you supposed
to be at, Jeremiah?
I was a cop for
Minneapolis Police Department
for 20 years.
We were driving to the ball.
We weren't attacking
getting there.
I'm Inspector Charles Adams,
4th precinct,
Minneapolis on the North side.
Don't fucking touch me.
Yeah, we're gonna
have to build trust
after George Floyd's death.
But there's always been
a tension
between law enforcement
and our community,
African American,
our community.
[overlapping shouting]
[indistinct police
radio chatter]
I am Acting Lieutenant
with Metro
Transit Police Department.
[person] I can't breathe.
[Lawrence] There are shitty
cops out there.
I'll admit it--I'll be
the first one to admit it.
But you can't let bad cops--
we can't let them win.
[crowd chanting]
Hands up! Don't shoot me!
[Plunkett] I'm not wanted
by the white side.
I'm not wanted by
the Black side.
If I go to a scene,
if it's Black folks,
oh, I'm a Uncle Tom,
I'm a coon
and this and that and
"you a sellout" or whatever.
But not all police
officers are bad.
And that's what the community
gotta see...
dramatic chords
Before you judge
anything about me,
get to know me.
You can't trust me because
you think I think like them.
You don't know how I think.
moody percussive music
[police radio chatter]
vocalization
[police radio chatter
continues]