There has been many a film about professional athletes and how many of them are heroes who have overcome much to get where they are. Jared Zwerling’s documentary foes over the life of Trent Williams. The part of his life involving football from his college career until today where he is considered one of the best players in the NFL.
Trent “Silverback” Williams was a large child. As a child, he played basketball first. Only started to play football when a coach saw a big body and knew he could play against older people. Football has brought him and his family money beyond their wildest dreams. After playing college ball at Oklahoma, he was drafted fourth overall in the 2010 NFL draft by the Washington Redskins. There he established himself as not only the best offensive lineman in the league but one of the best players.
None of this sounds like something a movie needs to be made about. It isn’t. That is until when in 2014 he discovered a bump on his head. The bump grew slowly and was tricky to figure out what it was. Finally, in 2019, it was diagnosed as a rare form of sarcoma on his scalp. It was so serious at this point that Trent was told to get his affairs in order.
Amazingly after surgery and recovery plus missing a year of football, he went back to playing professional football in 2020 for the San Francisco 49ers. It was like he did not miss a step and Willaims was named to his eighth Pro Bowl team. His return and showing he could still be a dominant player was rewarded when the 49ers signed Trent Williams to a $138 million dollar contract. It was the biggest contract ever for an offensive lineman.
This amazing comeback and man is fleshed out in the documentary. The story is told through film and interviews with Williams and his family as well as friend rapper and 5-time Grammy winner Lil Wayne along with NFL players like Adrian Peterson, Vernon Davis, Chris Ivory, and more.
Besides the football part of the story, we also see what an impressive person Trent Williams is. He has branched out outside of football becoming a property owner, gym owner, dog breeder, and airplane owner. The life of this private man is opened up in the hope that his story can inspire as well as bring awareness about sarcoma. A quiet, genuine, intelligent man is revealed to be a true hero.