This “second chance” was critical in defining many of the films that are now regarded as “classics” today; Blade Runner, The Big Lebowski, Office Space, The Thing and The Shawshank Redemption are just a small percentage of films that were considered box office bombs before earning legendary status upon their home video releases.
With cable declining and the DVD and Blu-Ray market essentially dead, streaming is the best opportunity for initially unsuccessful films to break into profitability. Generally, streaming charts tend to be dominated by recently released films that gain even more popularity once they’re available to watch on loop; any households with young children have likely seen Moana and The Super Mario Brothers Movie countless times if they have Disney+ and Peacock, respectively. The strange ways that streaming algorithms work can also lead to a resurgence for a surprising title, which was the case for the Texas-based 2015 football drama My All-American.
Based on Jim Dent's nonfiction novel Courage Beyond the Game: The Freddie Steinmark Story, My All-American tells the incredible true story of a strong-willed football star who achieved his dream of playing for the Texas Longhorns during the 1969 season, in which the team took home the national championship. Despite being underestimated due to his smaller size and open-hearted optimism, Freddie became the leader that his team needed, showing the purity of the Texas spirit as he faced overwhelming odds.
Beyond representing his state in a national arena, Freddie Steinmark also served as a source of inspiration during a dark period in American history, in which he lost his beloved brother to the Vietnam War.
Although it has all the makings of a feel-good football classic in the vein of Friday Night Lights or North Dallas Forty, My All-American is actually a weepie that delves into the more tragic side of Steinmark’s journey. Two days after Texas beat the Arkansas Razorbacks in a 15-14 match that would be dubbed “The Game of the Century,” Steinmark was discovered to have a malignant tumor within his leg, which resulted in an amputation. It sadly wasn’t enough to spare his life, as he would die in 1971 after watching his team go on to achieve additional victories. However, Steinmark's life was memorialized by the Dallas journalist Blackie Sherrod, who helped him write and publish his autobiography I Play To Win, which was posthumously released to great acclaim.
Treating this powerful story with sensitivity was of great importance to director Angelo Pizzo, who made his directorial debut with My All-American after writing the screenplays for sports classics Hoosiers and Rudy. The film was shot on location throughout Texas, with key sequences filmed in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth. In the role of Steinmark was breakout star Finn Wittrock, who would go on to earn Emmy nominations for his performances in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story and American Horror Story: Freak Show.
Faith in Sports
My All-American was released by the tiny distributor Clarius Entertainment, which was dissolved in 2015 upon the departure of its founder William Sadleir, who went on to head Aviron Entertainment. The smaller marketing budget meant that My All-American struggled to gain awareness in a packed fall slate, which included breakout hits such as Gravity, Frozen and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. While the film was pushed from October to November in hopes of taking advantage of a football-friendly audience over Thanksgiving, it earned a measly $2 million on a budget of $20 million.While this type of performance would have generally resulted in a film like My All-American being forgotten entirely, it was quietly added to Netflix’s streaming library earlier this year. Given that Netflix remains the king of streamers by a healthy margin, it has the ability to spotlight any and all library titles that shift into circulation, resulting in a surprising breakout success for My All-American over a decade since its debut.
Were cord-cutters looking for football content? Did a lot of people just not click away after wrapping up their viewing of the final season of Cobra Kai? Did the handsome faces of Finn Wittrock and Aaron Eckhart entice curious viewers endlessly scrolling through options? Why My All-American ended up being a late-stage hit is unclear, but it's almost guaranteed that its creators saw greater residual checks within the last few months than they ever did during the film’s theatrical run.
The film industry has also changed rather rapidly since My All-American was released in 2015, as the “inspirational sports film” subgenre has begun to fade away. When looking at the list of American football films released since, the options include the geriatric comedy 80 For Brady, the scandalous true crime documentary BS High and a few faith-based projects that didn’t break out of their niche target audiences. Even if My All-American didn’t feel particularly revolutionary, it has become a bit of an anomaly in the years since.
What’s most notable about the resurgent success of My All-American is the trickle-down effect it may have; there’s bound to be more interest in the true story of both Steinmark and his efforts to help cancer research, which remain an active component of Texas sports history. Perhaps its popularity will spur a revival of Texas-based football films, as no other state has inspired as much great content about the nation’s most popular televised sport.
Regardless, it’s nice to see My All-American finally find an audience willing to accept a sentimental yet overwhelmingly earnest tribute to a Texas sports legend. In the end, the underdog still managed to come out on top.
