A Triumph of the Heart: The Ricky Bell Story

This Movie Belongs on ESPN Classic, BET, TV One, they show Something for Joey, Brians Song, The Hank Gathers Story periodically but this movie never saw the light of day again it seems. I remember watching it. I have an NFL Greatest moments on Tape about Ricky Bell he would probably have been a hall of Famer just like Bo Jackson probably would be if their careers had not have been cut short. He used to run in combat boots in the Deep Sand for a workout. The Three Best Running backs in Tampa Bay Buccaneers history are Ricky Bell, James Wilder, and Warrick Dunn. Offensively Bell pretty much single handedly along with Jerry Eckwood, Doug Williams and Jimmie Giles led the 79 Bucs to the NFC Title game along with that Tremendous Defense they had.

I was so into this I went online and found someone who has this movie.

go to a website called Bucstop and search for the movie there! And I found it! The best part is the end on the hospital bed. So sad but so good!

Ricky Bell was drafted the no.1 pick in 1977 in a highly debated move ahead of Tony Dorsett. John McKay coach of the Bucs drafted Bell over Dorsett because he was familiar with him.

Of course hindsight is 20/20. Bell would have been an all pro behind that Dallas Line and Dorsett would have struggled in '77 and 78 too with the lack of a good line. But by 1979 the Bucs had a good sized line and dominated the line of scrimmage.

But by 1980 and 81 Bells injuries took longer to heal. The football action in this movie was filmed at Tampa Stadium for the Bucs/Vikings game 1990 season. If you look close you'll see Vinny Testeverde hand the ball off not the NO.12 they had in the film who played Doug Williams! Which was incorrect because in 1981 that Bucs/Vikes game was a night game!

Enjoy!

I found this movie to be inspirational and a feel-good film. It is that simple. I recommend watching it if you know where to obtain it (I came across it on Netflix). This movie has happy, sad, and funny segments, but most importantly, it gives you good morals to leave with. A story of perseverance and overcoming problems. On a side note, I enjoyed the technique of integrating real-game footage into the scenes as if it was all filmed for the movie. Forewarning though, the movie does contain some bad language and one particular scene has a couple lying in a bathtub together (nothing explicit is shown). Other than that, I completely enjoyed the movie.

My family watched this movie on tv years ago, and actually taped it on our VCR. We would all watch this film ever so often, and would all end up in tears with boxes of tissues used by the end. We somehow lost the tape over the years, but still always talk about it. It was a film that was so touching, I haven't seen a film that compares to it in all these years since it came out. I actually have a son now, and his name is Rhyan. I never thought about it until one day my family was sitting around talking about Ricky Bell, that I realized my son's name is the same name as the boy in the movie. The part when Ricky is laying in the hospital bed brings me to tears every time, such good acting in this movie. I give it a perfect 10, a definate classic.