Undefeated's Oscar Win Proves Best Stories Are Unscripted

A night that featured the biggest stars and as much glamor as you can handle managed to leave a small portion of glitz open for the sports world, and that is all Undefeated needed to show us something we have always known. 

Undefeated won the Oscar for best documentary feature at the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday. On a night filled with some remarkable movies that demanded millionaires to play make believe, there was one film that captivated the world with good ol' fashioned realism. 

Let me stop and state that I love sports. I find it rather annoying that many of us would clamor for the next great reality series when the best drama in the world fills the confines of our fine microcosm. 

It may not happen every night, but every once in awhile, a sporting event comes along with the scintillating action and drama that can rival the best movie of the year. 

Then there are those times when real life sports stories demand time on the big screen. Those young men from the Manassas Tigers in North Memphis have a story so compelling, it not only had us moved in the theaters, it had us talking well after the Oscars ceremony. 

The film follows the lives of high school football players playing for a school that had never won a playoff game in 110 years of its existence. 

More than that, it tells the tale of a community hit hard by a harsh economy and a factory closing that dealt a tremendous blow to a once booming area. 

It's a classic tale that never gets old in its re-telling, especially when the characters and their stories are true to life. 

Every last part of this story shows why the sports world can do drama better than most film producers. All you need is the patience to wait for a brilliant tale to come your way. 

Those that have seen the movie can attest to its beautiful portrayal and the painstaking efforts those behind the scenes had to go through to justly capture it. 

During director T.J. Martin's acceptance speech, Martin muttered an obscenity. He has since apologized, citing being caught up in the moment for his brief lack of judgement. 

When you consider the beauty of the film and the hundreds of hours of footage that were filmed, you get a sense of what Martin may have been feeling.

He captured that brief moment when sports transcended being just an event with rules. Undefeated was far more, and we are all thankful that Martin and fellow director Daniel Lindsay took the time to show it to us. 

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