TV Reviews : ‘Gridiron Gang’ Follows Convicted Teen Offenders

“Gridiron Gang,” a provocative, two-hour documentary on KTLA-TV Channel 5 at 8 tonight, spotlights an athletic program that is giving some hard-core juvenile offenders a chance for a new start in life.

Directed by Lee Stanley and hosted by Louis Gossett Jr., the film follows convicted teen criminals and several coaches through a football training program that, in three weeks, is supposed to turn gangbangers, robbers, kidnapers and one murderer into a competitive football team. That team will then compete against regular high school teams for a league championship.

The goal, says head coach Sean Porter, is to teach the concept of teamwork and self-discipline, so that these troubled and dangerous young men can make better decisions about their lives.

Letting a bunch of conscienceless street toughs play football to pay their debt to society sounds almost laughable. But the athletic program at Camp Kilpatrick, a maximum-security juvenile prison near Malibu, is no giveaway. It’s the hardest physical work these young men have ever done.

The documentary unfolds like a TV drama, with mood music and images from the training field, interspersed with Gossett’s narration and comments from coaches, juvenile facility administrators and the teens themselves. The reality sinks in, however, and it’s difficult to distance yourself from it.

For the first time in their lives, the young men come to care about working for something. A sensational turnaround takes them to the league finals. Six months after their release from prison, we’re told, most of the young men have stayed out of trouble and are in school, many in sports programs there.