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‘High School Football Is a Force for Good’

In defense of an embattled sport, the author reflects on how the relationship between a troubled high school kid and a committed coach embodied the game’s power and potential

Daniel R. Patmore/AP. Photo Illustration by The MMQB

Not every football story worth telling has a happy ending. Football isn’t The Blind Side, a movie that captured the love shared between a wealthy white Southern family and a poor black high school kid with NFL size and athleticism.

The Michael Oher-Leigh Anne Tuohy football love story is an outlier.

Football most often resembles the two-year love affair shared between Larry Willen and Chris Hamilton.