So, I was just kind of bumming around the other evening, you know how it is. Flipping through channels, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling on those streaming services. Nothing was really jumping out at me. Same old reality junk, tired sitcom reruns, movies I’ve seen a dozen times. I was pretty close to just giving up and picking up a book, which, honestly, felt like a lot of effort right then.
Then, I landed on this documentary. Can’t even remember if it was on a specific channel or buried deep in some streaming app’s library. The title was “The 16th Man.” Didn’t mean a thing to me at first. But the little picture they had for it, something about rugby, South Africa, I think. Now, rugby ain’t exactly my go-to sport. I’m more of a basketball guy, or maybe a bit of baseball if there’s nothing else on. So, this was a bit out of left field for me.
But, like I said, nothing else was doing it for me. I was bored, plain and simple. So, I thought, “Alright, what the heck. I’ll give it a shot.” Figured I’d watch for 10, maybe 15 minutes, and if it was a dud, I’d just switch over to something else. No big loss. I got myself a drink, plopped down on the couch, dimmed the lights a touch. You know, getting into the serious documentary-watching zone, even if my expectations were pretty low.
Well, let me tell you. Those 15 minutes? They turned into the whole entire film. I was hooked. Properly hooked. This wasn’t just some sports highlights package. No sir. It was way, way more than that. It dug into that whole massive change in South Africa, you know, with Mandela getting out of prison, the end of apartheid, and how this rugby World Cup somehow got all tangled up in it.
What really hit me about it…
It wasn’t just the game itself, though that was pretty intense, I gotta admit. It was seeing how a country that was so split, so full of anger and hurt, could actually find something, anything, to rally around. And it was a sport! Sounds a bit daft when you just say it, but watching the old clips, hearing the people talk who were there… man, it was something else.
It got me thinking, properly thinking, about things. You see so much arguing and fighting these days, don’t you? All over the internet, on the news, even down at the local coffee shop sometimes. Everyone’s got an opinion, everyone’s shouting, but not many are listening. And here was this story, a real story, about folks actually trying to bridge these huge divides.
- The hope in it, you could almost feel it coming off the screen.
- The pressure on those players, and on Mandela, it must have been immense.
- And just the sheer guts it took for them to even try and use a game to heal things.
It reminded me of this little thing, years back, in my own town. We had this stupid argument going on about a new bypass they wanted to build. Folks were really at each other’s throats, proper nasty. Then the town had its annual summer fair. And for that one weekend, most people just… let it go. They chatted, shared a beer, kids played together. It didn’t magically solve the bypass issue, of course not. But it was like a little pause, a reminder that, deep down, we’re all just neighbors. You know?
So yeah, “The 16th Man.” Totally didn’t see that one coming. Just stumbled on it on a random weekday night. But it stuck with me. It really made me think. And sometimes, that’s the best thing you can get from something you just find on the telly, isn’t it? Not just a way to kill time, but something that actually gives your brain a bit of a nudge. If you ever see it listed, I’d say give it a go. That’s just my experience from my couch, anyway.
