Buck: ESPN’s latest story unfinished

Next Saturday’s primetime premiere of ESPN’s new 30 for 30 film “Youngstown Boys” has generated enthusiasm and anticipation for college football fans across America, especially those who devotedly watched former Youngstown State and Ohio State coach Jim Tressel lead an unheralded team to a national title in 2002.

The film chronicles the meteoric rise, methodical downfall, and continuing recovery of Maurice Clarett, who was Ohio State’s best player and one of the Mahoning Valley’s greatest athletes.

Preceding the film’s premiere is ESPN’s live coverage of the Heisman Trophy presentation, an interesting parallel with Clarett’s unmet promise.

As it has done each year since the launch of the incredibly successful 30 for 30 series, ESPN has capped each Heisman night with a college football-themed documentary.

In 2009, “The U” provided a provocative and entertaining look at the Miami Hurricanes dynasty of the 1980s and early 1990s. The following year, “The Pony Excess” captivated younger generations with the recounting of Southern Methodist football’s tale of corruption and historic sanctions. They have since covered the relationship between former quarterback phenom Todd Marinovich and his overbearing father, and the once-in-a-generation talent of two-sport star Bo Jackson.

Director-brothers Jeff and Michael Zimbalist set the standard for the series with their acclaimed 2010 film “The Two Escobars,” an informative and compelling work about the intertwined lives of Columbian drug lord Pablo and the slain star of the Escobar-funded Columbian national soccer team Andres.

“Youngstown Boys” is their second production for ESPN.

Clarett’s journey is well known to most college football fans, especially northeastern Ohioans who can recount his story by heart.

Within the context of the tremendous football-themed films that preceded it and the Zimbalist’s first project, “Youngstown Boys” falls short of earlier works.

A Vindicator colleague noted how the film seemed focused on Clarett initially, but needed another element.

The result is a half-hearted attempt to build the story of the untimely exit of Tressel — with whom Clarett found a bond — from the school that forced Clarett from its campus a year after the Buckeyes’ title run.

All-too familiar scenes of blighted Youngstown streets lead the film into accounts of Clarett’s early life from Maurice himself, his family and mentors including Tressel. Until emotional tales of his imprisonment, we learn little about the main character’s plight, youthful anger coupled with drug and alcohol abuse, that we have not already seen in the local media as well as national coverage.

Much of the story takes place less than a decade ago with recognizable footage of a defeated and then rejuvenated Clarett being led into and out of courtrooms.

It’s difficult not to feel that ESPN rushed a story and film that seemed destined to be effectively told 10 years from now.

Clarett is just 30 years old, a man with most of his life still to be lived. Tressel openly wonders if Clarett’s life is headed toward a greater purpose.

Who knows if Tressel’s already legendary coaching career has come to its end?

In the film’s closing moments, Tressel parallels his former star’s journey with a quote passed on from a mentor: “Your next chapter’s going to be way more impactful than your last one.”

For “Youngstown Boys,” the problem is that it attempts to tell a story still in progress.

Write Vindicator sportswriter Ryan Buck at rbuck@vindy.com.