It’s not uncommon for football teams to play as if their lives depended on it. For the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits, their lives really do.
“4th and Forever” tells the tale. An absorbing new docu-series on Current TV, it chronicles the high-stakes 2010 football season of California’s Long Beach Polytechnic High School, where life is tough but the football team is tougher. Or better be. (It premieres Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT.)
| On TV |
| ‘4th and Forever’ |
| When: 9 p.m. Thursday |
| Channel: Current TV |
“What the heck is going on? Fighting is not football!” moans coach Raul Lara when an on-field brawl erupts during a preseason scrimmage with rival St. John Bosco High School.
He’s right, up to a point. But preserving the glorious legacy of Long Beach Poly is a fight. So is each furious day for the players off the gridiron.
Their simple, shimmering dream: to land a college football scholarship and break loose from this disadvantaged, gang-ridden world.
“If I don’t break this tackle, then my son won’t be able to eat,” says Jeremiah Hollowell with not too much exaggeration. The senior running back is already a single father and he’s fighting to get out.
In the past, many have crossed this transcendent goal line, and they serve the current squad as tantalizing role models. Poly has been recognized for the past five years as one of the nation’s top athletic schools by Sports Illustrated, and it has sent more players to the National Football League than any other high school. (Graduates include Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson and offensive lineman Winston Justice, Arizona Cardinals linebacker Pago Togafau, Washington Redskins safety Omar Stoutmire and Houston Texans linebacker Darnell Bing.)
Lara has recorded 100 wins in his nine seasons as Poly’s head coach — while holding down his full-time job on the graveyard shift as a probation officer.
But Poly is coming off of a disappointing 6-6 season the previous year. It was their worst season in 15 years. They lost to local rival Lakewood for the first time in more than a quarter-century.
Lara feels the pressure. If the Jackrabbits can’t get back on top, he says bluntly, “I’m out of here.”
And for viewers — surely most of them — who don’t know how the Jackrabbits fared in that do-or-die 2010 season, “4th and Forever” bristles with suspense from the first episode and first game. Dealing with much more than football, it’s a series that has game.
