Plot

Buzz Kulik's beloved tearjerker is based on the real-life friendship between Chicago Bears teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and the bond that was strengthened when Piccolo discovers that he has a fatal disease.

Gale Sayers joins the Chicago Bears and is befriended by Brian Piccolo, an over-achieving running back. Although they compete for the same spot on the team, and despite the fact that Sayers is black and Piccolo white, they become roommates on the road and very close friends, especially when Sayers is injured and Piccolo helps his recovery. Later, they and their wives must both deal with the harsh reality of Piccolo's cancer.—Jerry Milani <jmilani@ix.netcom.com>

Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers are teammates on the mid-1960s Chicago Bears. At a time when professional football still bears a certain amount of race-based segregation, the growing friendship between the white Piccolo and the black Sayers, as well as their wives, Joy and Linda, becomes a symbol of harmony during the civil rights era. That bond grows stronger still when Piccolo receives some shattering and unexpected news.—Jwelch5742

Is a dramatization of the surprising best friendship between pro football players Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo, this story starting with the genesis of that friendship when they, both rookies, were invited to the Chicago Bears training camp in 1965. The surprising issues are among other things that: outgoing Piccolo could not go two seconds without saying something, usually some wisecrack getting someone else, often Sayers, in trouble, while it was like pulling teeth for introverted Sayers to string more than two words together especially in public settings; and the two men were vying for the same types of positions on the team, that required speed and agility. With that latter issue, Sayers was more gifted, while Piccolo knew that he was always proverbially second best, which only made him try harder. But the most obvious outward difference between the two is that Piccolo is white and Sayers is black, it at a time when there was still racial segregation in society in general and even within professional football, with the two being the first black/white pairing to share rooms in the Bears coaching staff believing it more beneficial to room the players by position rather than by race which was the unofficial/official league policy. That best friendship would extend to their respective wives. But that friendship would be truncated with Piccolo receiving a serious lung cancer diagnosis.—Huggo