Winter State Entertainment announced earlier this month that they will release two new sports documentaries, and one of them will feature Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount. The other one is about MLB icon Tommy John. Post-production is underway on both, the goal being to secure a sale to a streamer within the next year.
The feature on Blount is being directed by Solomon Shields. He is the son of another NFL Hall of Famer, Kansas Chiefs offensive lineman Will Shields. Interview subjects will include Steelers legends and NFL Hall of Famers Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris and Joe Greene, among others.
Via Deadline.com, the film is titled, “Mel Blount: Whatever It Takes.” It will focus on Blount’s childhood in the segregated South, his Hall of Fame career with the Steelers and his efforts to help disavantaged kids by opening youth homes in his hometown of Vidalia, Georgia and Washington County.
Blount started his first youth home while still a Steeler, on the Vidalia farm where he grew up. In 1990, Blount opened his second youth home on a Washington County farm, but there were a series of challenges to open it. Blount struggled for 18 months with zoning, neighbors and the Ku Klux Klan, which held a rally and cross-burning near the 248-acre farm. At zoning hearings, some residents expressed concern about community safety, the home’s impact on property values and the boys influence in local schools. Most of the kids attending Blount’s youth home were Black and from inner city Pittsburgh.
Blount persevered, however, and the home accepted its first child in 1990, and was given clearance to accept youths aged 7 to 13. To this day, 33 years later, Blount still runs the Washington County youth home and is making an impact on kids who have faced hardship. The Steelers rookies visit Blount’s youth home every year to provide encouragement and inspiration to the kids.
“Having been around football since before I can remember, it’s surreal to be directing a documentary on someone who not only changed the NFL, but how the game is played,” Shields told Deadline.com. “To learn about Mel as a person and how he went from picking cotton in the fields of the South to being a key part of the first Steelers Dynasty has been an honor.
“Despite his success, he was still targeted by the KKK for giving children a second chance at life,” the filmmaker continued. “Mel knew that whatever it takes, he would stay true to his mission. He truly inspires me and I hope his story resonates with others in the same way.”
Blount is thrilled to be a part of the documentary and to tell not only his football life, but his life story.
“I’m excited about my documentary, it will give you the opportunity to see what it was like growing up in Georgia during segregation and going to a all black college, being coached by a white man and playing with white players for the first time in 1970 to becoming a NFL Hall of Famer to dealing with the KKK after retiring from football to start a boys ranch! I hope it will inspire everyone to see challenges as opportunities!” Blount said.
Blount is regarded as one of the best cornerbacks in NFL history, recording a franchise record 57 interceptions, five Pro Bowls, six All-Pro nominations, NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1975, NFL 1980s All-Decade Team, NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team, Steelers All-Time Team and is a member of the Steelers Hall of Honor. Blount was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989.
Blount was so dominant that the NFL implemented a rule because of him in 1978. The rule prohibited the contact between defensive backs and receivers beyond five yards of the line of scrimmage. From its inception, that rule has been known in history as the “Mel Blount Rule.”
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