"How long do we have to keep watching this crap?" - The opening line of The Longest Yard spoken by Anitra Ford.

Anitra was talking about football, right? 

I saw The Longest Yard when it was first released in 1974. I remember enjoying the film. I was also a budding football fan back then, and since I was born in Pittsburgh, loyal to the Steelers as documented by my golden corduroy suit. I loved sitting in that bean bag, surrounded by family and laughter. Here we go! 

Everyone in my family is a ridiculous Steeler fan. Everyone, except my brother. He was partial to the home team, and still is: the Los Angeles Rams. Although he's been living in Las Vegas for a couple of decades, there is no way he will be drinking that Raiderade. John loves a good four quarters as much as anyone and I've never seen him root against the Steelers, because, how could he, I mean, the entire family is wacko for the black and gold. 

My family lived in the San Fernando Valley in 1974, but my first memory of watching a Steeler game was in Pittsburgh, 1975. The Steelers were playing the Vikings in Super Bowl IX. My Grandma was really sick and she was in the hospital, which is why we traveled back to PA. We watched the game on the TV in her room. Grandma was cool.

Ever since 1975, watching the Steelers is like being home for Thanksgiving. Everyone is at the table. The food is good, the drinks are bottomless, and the TV ... is ... on. You get hoarse watching the game. Veins pop out of your head. And I haven't watched a game with the family since we lost to the Packers in the Super Bowl, 2011. The Mendenhall fumble. Damn. Most of my family lives in California, so I've been watching the games with my gentle partner, Elle, who tames my enthusiasm, in a good way. That's the thing about our family and the Steelers; it's family bonding even if we aren't physically in the same room. We watch together, in our hearts. It may seem like a bunch of hut-hut, but it's just our way of showing total and absolute love towards each other. 

Silver Linings Playbook (SLP) does a wonderful job of depicting family football love. SLP came out in 2012. I hate to be a spoiler, but Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence fall in love at the end. That ain't a fluke. Silver Linings Playbook was produced nearly 40 years after The Longest Yard. Jennifer Lawrence was not only the smartest football person in the room, but she was also the lead character. She was fierce. And she was a woman.

There were only two women in The Longest Yard. Burt Reynolds assaulted the first woman and we never saw her again. He ended up in prison for the offense. While in prison Burt had sex with the other woman—and we never saw her again. When I recently rewatched The Longest Yard, I realized the film is an abusive sausage party full of rage and hate. But I remember enjoying the film on the bean bag. I was eleven years old, it was the 70s, and I was truly energized by the revenge aspect of the picture. I was oblivious to the depiction of women in the film and I had no idea that rage wasn't an act of loving kindness. And neither was the hatred inspired Jim Crow racism that was prevalent in the movie. The San Fernando Valley was full of White people in the 70s. If it wasn't for busing and my parents having an interracial couple as their best friends, I knew absolutely nothing about the Black experience. And btw, the husband of my parents besties played in the NFL for the Chicago Bears. Football love. 

Anitra knew. 

The script of The Longest Yard was written by Tracy Keenan Wynn, who also wrote the screenplay for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, a story that depicts the struggles of Blacks as seen through the eyes of Miss Pittman, a slave at the end of the Civil War. Before the Civil War, Blacks were enslaved for 242 years. After the Civil War, Blacks were enslaved by Jim Crow laws until 1965. After Jim Crow, Blacks were enslaved by prisons, which continues today.

When Anitra said, "How long do we have to keep watching this crap?" I like to believe she was referring to hate and rage and how one of its byproducts is killing the soul of America.  

By the end of the film, the Blacks and Whites rallied around each other to defeat the oppressor. As an eleven year old, I could definitely see the good in that. 

Kind of a happy ending I guess.

Love rules.

⌘