Brian's Song

Is a dramatization of the surprising best friendship between pro football players Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo, this story starting with the genesis of that friendship when they, both rookies, were invited to the Chicago Bears training camp in 1965. The surprising issues are among other things that: outgoing Piccolo could not go two seconds without saying something, usually some wisecrack getting someone else, often Sayers, in trouble, while it was like pulling teeth for introverted Sayers to string more than two words together especially in public settings; and the two men were vying for the same types of positions on the team, that required speed and agility. With that latter issue, Sayers was more gifted, while Piccolo knew that he was always proverbially second best, which only made him try harder. But the most obvious outward difference between the two is that Piccolo is white and Sayers is black, it at a time when there was still racial segregation in society in general and even within professional football, with the two being the first black/white pairing to share rooms in the Bears coaching staff believing it more beneficial to room the players by position rather than by race which was the unofficial/official league policy. That best friendship would extend to their respective wives. But that friendship would be truncated with Piccolo receiving a serious lung cancer diagnosis.