Recently, my favorite team in the National Football League (NFL), the Chicago Bears, traded their quarterback, Justin Fields.  They did this because they received the number one overall pick in the upcoming draft, a three-day process that sees college and other so-called amateur athletes picked by professional teams in the hopes of playing American football at the highest level.  I loved seeing Fields play for my home town, even if I no longer live in that city.  He is the kind of leader that I appreciate, and, of course, it did not hurt that he is an avowed Christian.  However, you do not need to rely on my word as to the quality of his character.  His teammates all spoke glowingly of him, and the fans lined the street leading to Halas Hall, the Bears base of operations (for lack of a better term), with signs entreating the executives to keep their quarterback.  It appears that, given the team’s struggles since Fields has been behind center and the allure of a so-called “can’t miss” prospect in the draft, it was enough for their general manager, Ryan Poles, to make a deal.  Why am I talking about NFL business?  Because there are some parallels between this tale and that which happens in today’s film, Draft Day (2014).

Draft Day, unfortunately, is not about my beloved Bears, but rather another team in the league, the Cleveland Browns.  Yet, we start on the eponymous date with another franchise, the Seattle Seahawks.  Their general manager, Tom Michaels (Patrick St. Esprit), is awakened in the wee hours of the morning by a phone call from his boss, team president Walt Gordon (Chi McBride), about the possibility of trading their number one overall pick.  Trying to think of who might be desperate enough to make a deal and give up a haul of future picks at the same time, Tom fixates on his Cleveland counterpart, Sonny Weaver, Jr. (Kevin Costner).  The “Jr.” adds some weight to Sonny’s decision since his father (not pictured) was a beloved, and successful, team coach, whom his son fired the previous season.  Before you go thinking Sonny a villain, I will tell you that his mother, Barb Weaver (Ellen Burstyn), had told her son to do so, citing the elder Weaver’s health.  Sonny Jr., though, agreed to it because he felt it was what was best for the team.  As for Tom’s proposal, Sonny initially turns it down because he also deems it not in the long-term best interest of the organization.  Doing his job, though, is not the only thing on his mind.  His girlfriend, Ali (Jennifer Garner), who is also the Brown’s finance manager, wants to talk about the news of her pregnancy.  It is not the best timing for them, and while she understands the situation, she is clearly not happy when she leaves the house.  On Sonny’s way to the office, he begins making phone calls.  Among the first are to the college players they could take with the seventh pick in the draft.  The one who is most impassioned about being taken by Cleveland is Vontae Mack (Chadwick Boseman), a linebacker from Ohio State University.  The other is part of the city’s legacy, Ray Jennings (Arian Foster), a running back out of Florida State University, whose father played the same position for the Browns.  Sonny listens to their pitches as to why he should draft them, but remains mum on the decision.  The next person to whom the general manager speaks is team owner Anthony Molina (Frank Langella).  Anthony is adamant that Sonny makes a “splash” in the draft, a move that will capture attention and hopefully give the team momentum going into next season.  In short, Anthony wants the top prospect coming from the amateur ranks, University of Wisconsin quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Bo Callahan (Josh Pence).  When Sonny seems hesitant, Anthony all but threatens firing Sonny if his general manager does not pull off a massive trade.  Upon finally arriving at his office, against Sonny’s instincts, he phones back Tom to see if the transaction is still on the table.  It is, but the compensation has gone up, including another future first round pick.  Seeing little alternative, Sonny accepts the offer.  Word gets around quicker than he expects that the move has been made, and it is met with mixed reactions.  Many are excited about the possibility of drafting Bo, except for a few key figures.  Vontae calls and flatly says Sonny made a mistake.  The Browns’ new head coach, Coach Penn (Denis Leary), is angry about losing the draft capital.  He also wants nothing to do with having a rookie quarterback on the team.  Further, he is happy with Brian Drew (Tom Welling), the Browns’ current quarterback.  Brian expresses his frustration by trashing Sonny’s office.  Everyone assumes Sonny is going to take Bo, but Sunny does not state that this is his clear intention.  Instead, between rounds of trying to work on his relationship with Ali, Sonny begins investigating Bo.  It is the Browns’ Director of Security, Ralph Mowry (W. Earl Brown), who raises concerns about Bo’s character.  Additionally, Vontae suggests looking at Bo’s game tape to see how the young quarterback handles adversity.  These are telling clues, but everyone still believes that Bo is the natural pick.  Anthony had flown to New York City where the draft is being held in order hand Bo a Browns jersey with the first selection.  Sitting alone in his office with the weight of the NFL, at least, on him, Sonny decides to take Vontae.  Those following the situation, inside Browns headquarters and outside it, are shocked.  Anthony leaves New York immediately to come back to Cleveland and presumably fire Sonny, and Coach Penn says he is quitting.  Yet, Sonny is just getting started.  He next calls the Jacksonville Jaguars, trading this year’s and the Browns’ next two years’ worth of second round picks in order to get back into the first round.  By not taking Bo, it triggered a number of teams passing on the quarterback.  It is Seattle that still wants the Wisconsin prospect.  Thus, Sonny phones Tom and works out a trade that sees Cleveland get back all the picks they gave at the beginning of the day.  Lastly, Sonny drafts Ray.  Everyone is happy, and they celebrate as the film ends.

Faith is not a part of Draft Day, though in real-life I know to everyone who cares about this process that it may look like the hand of God is on these kinds of developments.  For example, last year my Bears had the number one overall pick and traded it to the Carolina Panthers, getting back the kind of package seen in the movie.  This was the part that they controlled.  What they did not was how the following season played out, getting the same draft position as the previous year thanks to the Panthers’ ineptitude on the field.  Therefore, we have the scenario discussed in the introduction, which fell to them by accident.  The thing that unites Ryan Poles and Sonny Weaver, Jr., is having a vision of what needs to be done and how that can benefit their organizations.  Sonny cares about the people with whom he works, but he trusts his own instincts more than others.  Though the comparison is not always made, such feelings are often promptings of the Holy Spirit.  They can be sometimes used by the enemy to take us in the wrong direction, but with proper discernment and prayer, we can learn to more readily distinguish between the good and bad.  We can see this at work in Sonny.  There are moments when God will guide us as to decisions that others, perhaps even a majority of people for whose opinion we care a great deal, will find unpopular, even crazy.  I write this as we get closer to Good Friday, a coming death for Jesus that His Apostles thought their Messiah mad for contemplating.  Sonny’s behavior is cast in a similar light as the night unfolds.  The fact that it all works out for the best is evidence that there are times when events are bigger than us.  Yet, there is somebody who can see beyond our own insecurities and to that proverbial bigger picture.  While we will never have the same kind of foresight as our Lord and Savior, we do have the Holy Spirit to nudge us in the right direction if we allow ourselves to be so moved.

I hope that Poles has similar success to Sonny on the Bears’ Draft Day.  These results of these decisions, like so much of our lives, are ultimately out of our hands.  Faith can teach you these lessons best, though it is good to have a movie like this one to provide at least a tangential reminder.  This one gets a solid recommendation.