The Daily Signal - From Football Field to Supreme Court: Movie Tells True Story of Coach Joe Kennedy

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

A lot of things in Coach Joe Kennedy’s life have been unexpected—not the least of them being taking a major case to the Supreme Court or having a movie made about his life.  Kennedy's decision to take a knee in prayer after football games placed him in the middle of a national controversy, and thrust him into a spotlight he never asked for or wanted, since, as he acknowledges, he sees himself as a pretty “average Joe.” The film “Average Joe” hits theaters Thursday and aims to go beyond what Americans know about the coach from news headlines to share his personal life story, says director Harold Cronk. Kennedy was thrust off the football field and into the courtroom nearly a decade ago after he was told he could not take a knee in silent prayer on the 50-yard-line after football games. His decision to persist in his commitment to the Lord cost him his job at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Washington, about 30 miles west of Seattle. In 2022, after a seven-year legal fight, Kennedy won his case before the Supreme Court. In early September 2023, he returned to the football field and again took a knee in prayer at the end of the game. Later that same month, he made the choice to “retire,” telling The Daily Signal at the time that he and his wife “finished the fight.” “You know, we were in the race to finish the fight, and we’ve remained faithful, and that’s it,” he said. Kennedy and Cronk join “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the making of the movie and what they hope viewers take away from the film.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, October 10th. I'm Virginia Allen. If you've been a listener to the Daily Signal podcast for a little while, then you know the name Coach Joe Kennedy. He's the football coach that took a case over prayer all the way to the Supreme Court and won. Well, he wrote a book telling his story titled Average Joe, and today, the movie, Average Joe, is hitting theaters. The film goes beyond Coach Joe Kennedy's legal battle in a really unique. in sometimes humorous way to tell the story of the challenges of his childhood, his service in the Marines, and his long journey to finally marrying the love of his life. Coach Kennedy and director of Average Joe, Harold Crunk, join me here on the show today to discuss the film. Stay tuned for my conversation with them right after this. Live from Indiana syndicated nationally from the Daily Signal, it's the Tony Kennedcast. Man, you've got me hook, hook, light, and seeker. Now I want to tune into your program. Interviews from the border.

Coverage from inside leftist riots. Exposing those targeting children. From the guy leaving liberal journalist speechless. It's the Tony Kennedcast. Join us live on the Daily Signals, YouTube and Extreme every weeknight at 7 p.m. Eastern or anywhere you get your podcasts. Well, it is my joy to welcome back to the Daily Signal podcast, coach Joe Kennedy, and to welcome for the first time director of the film, Average Joe, Harold Cronk. Gentlemen, thank you both so much for being here.

It's great to see you again. Yeah, thanks for having us. Absolutely. Well, this is exciting because it feels like maybe I don't know. I don't want to say it's a final chapter. That feels like too final. But Coach Joe, we have been following your story here at the Daily Signal for years. And what an honor that has been all the way from you losing your job at Bremerton High School in Washington State because you were committed to taking a knee in silent prayer as a coach at the end of those high school football games.

Of course, that case rose through the courts back and forth. You spent years in and out of courtrooms. Ultimately, wound up at the Supreme Court where you had a victory and were able to then return to that field, take a knee in silent prayer once again. and ultimately decided to retire. There's a book written. You've written a book telling your story, why you chose to take that stance. And now, Harold here with us, has directed a movie telling your stories.

So, I mean, just wild, thinking about all these years that have passed, what has happened in that time. What is your kind of gut reaction to this knowledge of, okay, not only did I have coach this wild story of saying, Yes, I'm going to have this commitment to pray on the field.

Then there's going to be a book written. Now there's a movie. What does that feel like to have a movie made telling your story? Well, you and I have known each other for many years. And all of you guys at the signal, I mean, you were the first ones to report. So I feel like you guys are family. And you know how weird it's been from day one. I'm just a high school football coach.

I know I try to let everything go right over my head. and I just try to keep my head low and just keep moving forward. When God calls me, I move. Remind us, if you would, just because I think it's powerful to have that reminder of why you were so convicted to keep taking that knee in silent prayer, even when the school said, hey, you have to stop doing this. Yeah. I mean, there was a bunch of reasons. I wanted to, you know, I actually wanted to give in.

And it was no big deal. but it was the marine in me that really stood out because, you know, before I became a Christian, I was an American and the First Amendment meant the world to me. But I had to do this because my covenant with God, I made a deal with him when I accepted the Lord. I said, you know, you give me my wife. I'll give you my life. And he took me up on that. So what am I going to do?

Say no now. I got to hold up my end of the bargain. And that was a covenant I made with God that I would give him praise after every day. game. And that's what I did. It was something so simple. So simple in so many ways. And then in other ways, very complicated because it took you all the way to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, to weigh in on what should have been very, very simple. But Harold, I want to ask you. Simple but not easy, right? Exactly. Simple but not easy. Harold, when did you first learn about Coach Joe Kennedy and what he was up to? Well, I had heard the story, obviously, through the news. And then my good friend, Troy Duhon,

who is the executive producer of the film, reached out to me and said, hey, I have a story for you. And I read the book that was actually hadn't been released yet. And I'm like, man, this guy, this guy did it. He did what so many of us think or say that we would do, but he actually did it. He was the man in the arena marred by dirt and sweat

who was willing to take a knee in order to stand up for our religious freedoms. And it's a story that I just couldn't, I could not turn down. And then meeting the man, and the myth and the legend. I felt like a brother from another mother here. And we just, we connected on our first phone call.

And I'm like, yeah, this guy is, he's a real man. He's flawed and broken, just like me, but still willing to do the work. And I just wanted to tell a story in the worst way. Yeah. Yeah. And what was that process like? How long did it take from,

okay, let's finalize that script. Now this film hitting the big screen on October, 10th. It was a whirlwind mixed with a hurricane and a tornado. I mean, there's no other way filmmaking in a nutshell, right? Exactly. Yeah, it's always crazy. It's disorganized chaos that you try to create art through, right? But we had an amazing team that put this film together. You know, I mentioned Troy Duhon, our executive producer, Bob Katz, and Stephanie, our writer, we all kind of just came together and found a unique way to tell this story because what I wanted to do with the film is Coach's story is amazing, but I didn't want to just have a recap of the news headline version of this story, right?

That's really, everybody knows that part. I wanted to know how he managed to rise up from this kid from meager beginnings and meet the love of his life at age nine. And they're the star-crossed lovers throughout their entire lives. And they finally find their way back to each other, only to be hit with this thing that, almost ripped them apart once they found the way back to each other. So when I read the book, I read what Stephanie had written in the book and saw the, you know, the totality of what this journey was. I'm like, people need to know about this. People need to see what this man went through, what his incredible bride Denise went through to make sure that we retained the religious freedoms

that are at the core of what this country is about. Yeah. That was a really unique aspect to the film because Coach, because I have had the honor of sharing your story and we have done multiple documentaries sharing your story here at The Daily Signal. So I have heard you share some of your story with Denise, but there was a lot that I didn't know that in watching this film, it's like, oh, wow, struggles, you know, health struggles and just kind of the depths of some of those challenges that both of you faced as kids. What was that journey like for you? and Denise to have really your personal story shared in such a public way. With me, I don't care one way or another.

It's just my story, which isn't a big deal. But for Denise, it was huge. And she's been blessed and protected this whole entire time that she wasn't the front page story. And I think that's, you know, at least 50% of the story is her story. And when we went through together and that's what Harold. did is he took, you know, the two lives of two messed up kids and brought us all the way through to, you know, today. And that was the most amazing thing is that he shows all the, all the heartache, all the pain, the suffering, all that stuff. And just, I don't know how they do that,

but man, that was incredible. And we're in awe over what he made. And I can't sit through the whole thing without, you know, losing it a little bit and laughing a little bit here and there. So, yeah, it's going to be weird for her to have our whole life on the big screen. Yeah. Well, it is really fun to see the individuals that were cast to play both you and Denise. Harold, that had to have been a little bit of a challenge deciding who was going to play Coach Joe Kennedy because it's this powerful story of taking this stand, really, for free speech, for freedom of religion. And at the same time, you and I both have spent time with Coach Joe Kennedy. He has this awesome sense of humor.

He doesn't take himself too seriously. And that's a really important balance that you have to strike in casting the man that's going to play Coach Joe Kennedy. So how did you find Eric Close? Oh, goodness. I say that casting a film with faith elements is always a miracle. As you know, there's so much political stuff going on in our world. And it's difficult to find actors who are willing to step in to roles that do have political elements to it. And as much as, you know, we tried to play this to the story of Denise and Joe's life, you know, at the end of the day, this man shook President Trump's hand.

And that automatically for a certain group of people makes Joe the enemy. So it's difficult. But Eric Close is such an incredible actor, such a great man. And he truly embodied what you mentioned about coach's personality. he doesn't take himself too seriously. He's a Christian. He understood that side of Joe for sure. He's a convicted actor.

He always wants to bring everything he can to make it the most true rendition of the character. So it was really a huge blessing to find Eric and to bring him on the project. And one of my goals with this film is, like you said, coach, you're a knucklehead, man. You're a live wire brother. Nobody knows what you're going to do in any given moment. moment. And so when I came on the project, and after meeting coach, I'm like, look, if we're going to tell this story, we have to tell this story in a way that feels like coach telling his own story. That's what's going to make it unique. That's what's going to give it a voice. And Eric Close just fit perfectly with that direction. Well, and the filming style was unique because you do take minutes to, in a way, break the third wall where, you know, individuals are as if they're sitting down. Eric Close, playing Coach Kennedy as if he's, you know, just in an interview sharing his story in kind of that

lighthearted, fun way. Why did you choose to have that in not fully like the office style, but in a way, a little bit of a nod to that style? Well, I think for a while there was a question about whether or not this film was going to get made about their lives. And I thought that was an interesting element of the story about whether or not this film was actually going to get made. So I wanted to bring that. And look, this film could have. been super heavy throughout the whole thing. Everything that they went through, Coach and Denise went through, there was so much trauma, so much drama. And if you don't have a balance to that, it can make the film really hard to watch. And the thing that impressed me with Coach and Denise

is that their spirit throughout this entire journey was always positive, even in the darkest moments, right? They found a way to stick together, to stick it out. And a lot of that was through their personalities, through humor, through laughter. And so I wanted to make sure. sure that we had that in the film. Yeah. Coach, do you have a favorite scene in the movie without giving any major spoilers? Well, that's really super, super hard to do because I, you know, Harold and I was on set with them and we laughed about all these different scenes. And there was a couple that didn't even make it into the movie that I thought were the world's best scenes, but they might have been a little controversial like me. Yeah. So, you know, yeah. So, you. And,

Yeah, I don't know. I just thought that they did such a great job with all of it that I can't pick a single scene. Well, maybe the camel one's going to be the best. But it's, yeah, it's a good story. Yeah, I agree. Coach and I had, we had a favorite scene that we actually filmed. And we knew, look, we're trying to stretch our audience a little bit, right? We know there's a very specific group of people that we can count on to go see this movie.

but at the end of the day, this guy has done some absolutely crazy things in his life. And we wanted it to be a little bit raw, a little bit real. And one of those scenes was maybe just a little too raw and too real for our test audience. So coach and I love it, but it stayed on the cutting room floor. But maybe we can do a director's cut of the movie where we put that back in. There we go. I'd love to see that. So for you all, what do you hope audiences

walk away with from this movie. Harold, I'll start with you. Absolutely. You know what? I just want people to know we need heroic courage in this country from people. We need people who are willing to stand for what they believe in. We need people to step in the void. And they need a role model.

They need to see somebody who's just like them, flawed, broken, weird, not quite as pretty as you, maybe, Joe. but people that see themselves as the average Joe and they feel like, what can I do? Well, here's what this guy did, right? He's a great example of it. Be willing to stand for what you believe in. And, you know, I forget the quote, but for evil to triumph, it just takes good men not standing up, right? Yeah. Not doing exactly.

Staying silent. And I think it's time that we have a role model of imperfection doing the right thing in a difficult situation. and that's Joe. And I want to see people see this movie and be inspired and believe that they can make a difference, that their voice matters, regardless of cancel culture. Coach, what would you say? Yeah. And he summed it up really well. I want people do also walk away with not being defined by their past and being haunted by that because you always keep driving forward and how relationships, no matter how ugly they get, you know,

you can make it through the darkest times with each other. And like the Rocky movies, I walked out of there ready to just, you know, let's fight. Let's get ready to go. So I hope people walk out of there and go, yeah, I'm there. I'm going to stand up and be bold. Yeah. Well, and I loved how you all chose to end it because you take a minute and explain the legal implications that, yes, this is such a powerful personal story. But the end result of winning at the Supreme Court has lasting effects across all of America for ages to come. And I just think that was such a powerful way to close the movie for people to really realize, oh, wow, this isn't just a nice story.

Actually, all of history in so many ways is changed by this court case. So gentlemen, thank you both for your time. The movie is out on October 10th, Average Joe. You can get your tickets. make sure that you take time to go see this film and support not only coach Joe Kennedy, but the amazing work that Harold and his crew have done. Thank you both for your time. Really appreciate it.

I'll see both of you soon. Thank you so much. And with that, that's going to do it for today's episode. If you want to find tickets and find a theater near you where you can see Average Joe on the big screen, just look up Averagejoomovie.com. Again, that's average show, movie.com. There, you can find the theater nearest you that's playing the film and order tickets. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on brand new shows from The Daily Signal.

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