In Football We Trust

Some 240,000 Samoans and Tongans live in the United States. They are 28 times more likely to play professional football than any other ethnic group. Utah serves as the epicenter of the Polynesian pipeline to the NFL. Theses statistics and facts opening the documentary In Football We Trust provide a quick snapshot of a world in which tradition, family, religion, and potential are all linked by sport. Shot over the course of four years, the film follows four Polynesian-American high school students in Salt Lake City who pin their hopes and dreams on football. For these kids, some of whom live in homes fractured by poverty and gang violence, the sport offers salvation—opening a way to college via scholarship, hopefully followed by a career playing in the NFL. But the pressure to succeed is intense, often leading to strife at both home and school. Filmmakers Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn capture amazing serendipitous moments that might have been ripped straight from a fictional screenplay: a drug controversy, a gun arrest, lost scholarships, a crippling injury—but despite the drama, a faith in the sport and its power remains. Religion also plays an important role in the lives of two of the athletes, who weigh embarking on a Mormon mission immediately after high school (a two-year commitment) against playing college football. Along the way, Vainuku and Cohn also interject commentary from former pro football players of Polynesian descent who once walked in the same shoes as these kids, and here provide an interesting history of Pacific Islanders in pro and college-level football in the U.S. A fine sports documentary with a wider ethnographic perspective, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Morehart)