The Prophetic Vision of the Classic Movie "Blue Chips"
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I just finished watching the movie "Blue Chips" for what must be my tenth time. This movie predicted the future. Let’s discuss.
This was an important movie to me as a kid because it is all about college basketball and they have a ton of scenes involving game action. I remember my dad and his assistant basketball coach taking a bunch of us to see it when we were 12, the movie came out in 1994, and that memory has always stuck with me. I think about it often. We got to see a movie based on a sport we all loved and we all had dreams of being college basketball players at the time. I can also vividly remember going to play basketball with some of my teammates after seeing the movie. After watching it we had to go play. We had to blow off steam. And I also remember, after seeing the movie, how much I stood with Nick Nolte, he played the coach of the team. As a 12 year old I always equated the coach as the boss. They were in charge, they ran the show and whatever they said, that was the law. So when he decided he was going to go to the boosters and whatnot to get the players they needed to return to relevancy, I was devastated. He was breaking the rules to win again. It bummed me out. I sided with the writer, played by Ed O'Neil, who constantly pushed and questioned every recruiting move. I thought Nolte's ex wife was right to chastise him. She should have anyway because he lied to her, but she seemed more angry about the recruiting violations. The AD and the assistant coaches all tried to turn a blind eye, but Nolte was hell bent on getting these top recruits, no matter what it took. And I looked at someone like the character of Ricky Roe as a total scumbag. He asked for money and he did it in a very slimy way. And the villain of all villains in "Blue Chips" was Happy, played by JT Walsh. He was the booster who paid everyone. He helped the football and basketball teams stay in the top 25. He made sure they were a perennial power by any means necessary. And boy oh boy did 12 year old me despise Happy. He was the worst. I couldn't believe what he would do just to keep a college program relevant. And when Nolte called him out at the press conference after they won their first game with the new players, I openly applauded in the theaters. I didn't care what my friends and coaches thought. Nolte was standing up for what was right, or so I believed.
After finishing the movie again yesterday, I'm here to say, justice for Happy. He was right. He was doing NIL before it was legal. He has a line early in the movie where he is talking to Nolte about him signing six figure deals to be a coach, then six figure deals to wear certain brands and how pathetic it is that a coach can cash in on this money, but the players get nothing. He was absolutely correct in his assessment. He also takes care of all of the action without coaches knowing anything. That has to be the dream for college coaches. And Happy didn't focus on one sport, he was doing this for multiple athletic programs at the fictional university in the movie. That is what every agent in America is doing right now for athletes in the NIL era. They made Happy out to be such a slimy and smarmy scumbag, but he was the only person who understood and gave the college athletes what they deserve. I have talked so much about this on the website and the podcast, but college athletes bring in so much money, especially to big universities, and all they used to get was a full scholarship. That's a drop in the bucket for these universities that make billions off their athletics. Happy knew that and he made a choice to give the athletes their worth. NIL has only been a thing for a few years now, and it is a true mess, they need to find a way to sanction some stuff and make new rules, but the best thing about NIL is these college athletes are finally able to make money for themselves. They don't have to live on stipends until they get to the pros, if they get to the pros. Happy was just taking care of the athletes. He is not the villain. The villain is Bob Cousy, who played the AD. The villain is Nick Nolte for chastising these kids and boosters. The villain is Ed O'Neil for being a grown man obsessed with the lives of college students.
Justice for Happy. And if you've never seen "Blue Chips", do yourself a favor and check it out. It is a moment in time movie and it is one of the better ones out there.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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