Country superstar Kenny Chesney may have sold millions of records, won countless awards and played sold-out stadium shows for legions of fans, but anyone who knows the singer from Luttrell, Tennessee knows that his success is rooted in the discipline, the teamwork and sense of purpose he came to learn as teenager playing football at Gibbs High.
“I was the starting wide receiver, which tells you how great we were,” Chesney says. “And I quit growing my freshman year. But I now know why we practiced longer, why our coach put us through double practices in the summer heat… all those things he put us through. It was to teach us things me and everybody on our team has used to become the people we are.”
For the past year, Chesney has been shooting The Boys of Fall, a documentary about the power and passion of high school football. He has drawn on his longstanding relationships with some of football’s most successful players and coaches – including winning Superbowl coach Sean Payton, John Madden, Brett Favre, Troy Aikman, former UT coach Phil Fulmer and University of Alabama’s Nick Saban and Bobby Bowden – as well as high school coaches from Illinois, Texas and Tennessee.
“When I was looking for songs for my album, someone pitched me “The Boys of Fall” and it struck me as everything I think and feel about that experience,” Chesney says. “That song was like striking a match!”
Negotiations to find a distributor for The Boys of Fall are close to being finalized.
