“Two Days in April” is a documentary that landed in my lap that I didn’t quite know what to do with. When it wasn’t serving primarily as a marketing film for IMG Academies (the pronoun “our” became far too common in the story), it ostensibly was designed to follow four prospective professional football players as they tackled each step of the ladder in preparation for the NFL Draft. However, the involvement of IMG -- and at least one of the players’ agents -- ruined a lot of the impact it may have made otherwise and made it difficult to watch in some spots.
As a Miami Dolphins fan, I was intrigued by the portrayal of Derek Hagan, an Arizona State receiver who would go on to become a Dolphins
The documentary features bit players who are never accurately introduced, so we are left to assume they are other fledgling agents, hangers-on or both. The movie become more about the personalities of the players involved and the behaviors each chose to use to address obstacles along the way. From that sense, it became a bit of a social experiment; oddly, the most likeable and down-to-earth player, Moore, inexplicably becomes the outcast of the group. Hagan appears not to like the “meat market” angle of the process, Wilson comes off a misguided punk (from bashing Mel Kiper Jr. to turning to tequila after a bad game, you somehow knew this guy wasn’t going to cut it in the NFL) and Ingram as a somewhat naïve country boy.
The experience of Moore is perhaps the most candid and revealing, as the difficulty of the process begins to wear on him as he slowly realizes that four years of college “can utterly mean nothing.” The role of religion in his life and environment becomes clear when people begin speaking in tongues and such in his hotel room as he watches the NFL Draft.
Focusing on the “next season” that takes place after college is over, the flick dwells on the three-and-a-half months between bowl season and NFL Draft Day. Agent Tom Condon and ESPN analyst Rob Stone have heavy involvement in the movie, which leads one to believe they were compensated nicely by IMG, but if you can reconcile some of these self-serving aspects, the story that unfolds is engrossing, from the Senior Bowl (where practices are deemed to be much more important than the game) to the scouting combine to pro days (which are glossed over a bit).
One of the cool moments in the documentary came when Tampa Bay general manager Bruce Allen allowed for the filming of his interview with Hagan. In a revealing statement about the importance of character in the draft process, Allen told Hagan, “You’re all good players. What we’re looking for is a good teammate.”
Coincidentally, three of the players (Wilson, No. 78; Ingram, No. 80; and Hagan, No. 82) documented are taken within five picks of each other in third round, while Moore’s journey concludes with an interminable day of excruciating filming as he goes undrafted. Admitting that he is “confused,” Moore opens up even more by saying, “They made me doubt myself, and I don’t like anything that makes me doubt myself.” Sharing this gives some perspective of the mindset of the elite athlete, so many of whom have never faced much in the way of adversity and have always been told they are the best, the fastest, the strongest. The vulnerability that is unearthed when those who make their living picking the best players tell you in no uncertain terms that you’re not good enough makes for uneasy viewing, but compelling insight.
In the final scene, Moore’s mother, devastated for her son, wiped away tears as she said, “I’ll always be his No. 1 fan,” against the slow-motion backdrop of discarded and forgotten signs of congratulations and balloons of celebration.
Fast-forwarding a few years, unfortunately, none of the players made much of a dent at all in the NFL, so perhaps IMG picked a really bad class to highlight. Wilson was out of the league within two years, while, plagued by drops, Hagan busted out in Miami, before spending nondescript seasons with the Giants and the Raiders. Moore had cups of coffee with the Titans and Bucs before heading to the Indoor Football League, while the most grounded of the foursome, Ingram, spent solid years with Jacksonville before missing a full season due to injury and being picked up by the Saints.
“Two Days in April” was obviously a low-budget effort, but it did manage to tell a unique story and bring out some emotion. However, the lack of focus and the not-so-subtle ties to IMG Academies turned what could have been an insightful flick into a mostly forgettable shill fest.
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