I still remember the feeling I had when the lights came on in the theater as the credits to Remember the Titans were scrolled across the screen.
As a 13-year-old in love with the game of football, I thought it was the greatest movie I had ever seen. I still to this day believe it is the greatest sports film out there.
Remember the Titans is based on a true story of an African American football coach who was given the task of coaching a racially integrated team in 1971.
During this time, segregation was still in effect. Coach Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington, had the very difficult task of making his players forget about skin color and just see a person.
One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when the whole team is standing on the field at Gettysburg. Washington’s message to his team is one I believe is still applicable today.
“If we don’t come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don’t care if you like each other or not, but you will respect each other.”
After that moment, the players slowly started to come around and soon became like brothers.
On the surface, this film is about football. However, the message goes much deeper. The players showed their community the color of someone’s skin was not important. They proved that a person is defined by so much more than simply skin color.
The message of Remember the Titans can easily be applied to today’s America. The recent events in Baltimore are extremely disheartening. Lauren DeMoss Benson, my good friend and writer of thefulltimegirl, said it better than I ever could:
“It’s discouraging, heartbreaking even. A tragedy. An attack on our own country by its citizens, and when one part hurts, we all hurt with it. We have always hurt with each other. We hurt with New York when the towers fell, we hurt with Colorado when Columbine was attacked, we hurt with Connecticut when 20 children were gunned down, we hurt with Massachusetts when the marathon was bombed. And the thing is, we didn’t care what color they were. They were Americans. Hurting Americans. Broken Americans.”
I think we should all take a minute and Remember the Titans.