By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Tuesday, October 13, 2015
"Help your brother's boat across and your own will reach the shore." - Hindu proverb that opened "Play It Forward."
In a more predictable documentary about Tony Gonzalez - the legendary Atlanta Falcons tight end - he'd be seen as the dedicated, obsessed child seeking Super Bowl glory virtually out of his diapers.
“Play it Forward,” debuting Friday night at 9 on Showtime, is not your typical documentary.
Tony, who finished his 17-year NFL career in 2013, wasn't really that into football as a kid. He gives full credit to his older brother Chris for giving him the drive to play, much less carve out a Hall of Fame-caliber career.
“Chris lived with me,” Tony said in an interview earlier this week. “Everywhere around the world, let alone America, he was with me. He was my confidant, my coach. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be playing football.”
Chris, as his mom Judy said in the documentary,"loved football more than Tony." Unfortunately, Chris - who is two years older than Tony - was badly injured in a car accident at age seven and over the next three decades, lived vicariously through Tony.
“He taught me to care a little more, to put more into it. He taught me to have passion and to get angry. After games, he hit harder than me. After losses, he helped me put things in perspective. We worked off each other. We counseled each other and picked each other up.”
Adding texture and color to the documentary is video footage of the brothers sparring and Tony awaiting getting signed by the Kansas City Chiefs in 1997. Tony said Chris had saved all those old VHS tapes. "I had no idea he had held onto all that stuff," said Tony. "It was fun seeing all those old memories."
The documentary follows Tony near the end of career during the 2012 Falcons season. He won his first playoff game in his career and partied like he had won the Super Bowl. Then the team came tantalizingly close to actually making the Super Bowl, blowing a lead as a comeback fell just short at the Georgia Dome.
“Worst loss of my career,” Tony said. “I always wanted to play in the Super Bowl. That never happened. It hurts. I’m not going to lie about it. It’s reality. You deal with it.”
The 75-minute film also tracks his brother Chris’ efforts to create his own identity as a firefighter separate from Tony.
After Tony retired following a disappointing Falcons season in 2013, Chris and Tony had a falling out and didn’t talk for 18 months.
Tony - who is married with three kids and works as an analyst for "The NFL Today" on CBS - didn't specify why this happened but provided some broad outlines.
“Chris is still single,” Tony said. “He’s still chasing his dream. And we no longer had football to talk about every week. For years, it was about a game coming up or during the off season, about how to get ready for the next season. Now it’s gone. I compare it to an empty nester. The kids go off to college and you’re stuck with your spouse. What do we talk about now?”
Fortunately, their mom intervened and got them back together.
“We’re on the road to recovery,” Tony said. “We’ve done therapy. We’ve yelled at each other. We’re talking now. We’re establishing new boundaries.”
Tony and Chris were able to decide when cameras were around and when they were not. (He didn't want anyone watching him party, for instance, after his only playoff win.) It helps that the executive producers included TV host and former NFL player Michael Strahan and his manager Constance Schwartz.
But he didn't micro-manage the editing process, trusting Schwartz. "I'm always very honest," he said. "I try to be me. I don't have anything to hide."
She convinced him to clear certain footage, such as his dying stepdad saying that Chris is very protective and fierce but a bit of a "coward" when it comes to emotions. "I know my brother didn't like that," Tony said. But Tony felt it was honest.
At the same time, Gonzalez wanted this to be ultimately a feel-good story and not salacious. "We are not the Kardashians," he said. "We're not chasing fame. We're not building our brands."
Bottom line: "It's a story of two brothers that go through ups and downs in each other's lives. His struggle and my struggle. His struggle is just as great as mine."
And how about them Falcons? The team is 5-0 after eking out an ugly win against the Washington Redskins this past Sunday. "Surprise! Surprise!" Gonzalez said. "Very happy for them. Nobody saw this coming. This shows you what a running game can do. [New coach] Dan Quinn is shaking things up!"
TV PREVIEW
" Play It Forward," 9 p.m. Friday, October 16, 2015
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