When Bishop Sycamore took the field against IMG Academy on August 29, 2021, ESPN commentator Anish Shroff said that the high school was “a bit of a mystery” going into the game. Given the 58-0 result, that proved to be the understatement of that year. How does an alleged high school team that hadn’t won a game in two years land a spot against the premiere prep school in the country on a national stage?
As it turns out, there are a lot of layers to it beyond the extreme long con run by former coach Roy Johnson in the new HBO documentary, BS High. (Your view of Johnson might range from disgust, disbelief, and outright shock). There’s a story of various crimes, the culture of high school sports and money, and ultimately a collection of young Black men who were failed by all of it.
Johnson revels in the fact that this story is subject to documentary treatment. One of the first questions he asks the directors is, “Do I look like a con artist?” He speaks in many pop culture references – whether referring to himself as Hannibal from The A-Team or Magneto and his players being the mutants he needs to protect. Johnson meets questions with a certain level of dissonance with the ramifications of what he’s done – it varies from complete denial or an “us against the world” mentality that doesn’t seem plausible given the level of deceit Bishop Sycamore has put upon the people affected by it.
Like many of the players he recruited, Johnson dreamed of playing in the NFL, which then turned into an internship with the New York Jets. By watching figures like former Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells and former owner Leon Hess, Johnson gets an idea of being a figurehead in the same manner. It is noble to want to better the world and provide young Black men a chance at a life they would never have otherwise. However, that’s where the title of BS High becomes a double entendre of sorts. After Ohio’s African Methodist Episcopal Church tasked Johnson with creating the Christians of Faith (COF) Academy and a subsequent football program, it was like gasoline for a fire.
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The alarm bells on this operation rang early and often. COF co-founder John Branham Sr. was out on the process early and had many choice words for Johnson. At first, Johnson denies even knowing who he is but then (somewhat) acquiesces to the truth when pressed. Afterward, there were a bunch of promises and window dressing reminiscent of Fyre Festival in high school football program form. Instead of staying in dormitories, players had to stay at hotels that would often go unpaid and apartments they would get evicted from. After being promised a meal plan, players would have to steal TV dinners and eat pasta and pizza daily.
There was no place for the students to have class, actual curriculum, film study, or playbooks. Players often had to share helmets. The list of infractions goes on and on – flagged by journalist Andrew King and investigator Ben Ferree (BS High cleverly pairs his factual accounts with Johnson’s words). No matter how much trouble he pilled up, Johnson doesn’t show any amount of remorse – he’s defiant, arrogant, and stuck in his method of selfish thinking. Despite the many ways BS High tries to give him an out to apologize, Johnson is ten toes down.
What’s even more heartbreaking are various interviews with ex-players of Bishop Sycamore – that came from various situations just looking to have a shot at making it to a Division I school. There’s another issue – some players were in their 20s playing against 16 and 17-year-olds. That desire left an opening for Johnson to take out PPP loans in students’ names, and these athletes have evictions under their names. It’s clear these kids and the husk of what Bishop Sycamore embodies were just a vehicle for Johnson to get his name out there and gain national attention and money behind it.
He’ll tell you it’s out of the kindness of his heart, but with all the evidence the documentary lays out, it was anything but. Everything accuminates with the ESPN game where players sustained multiple serious injuries (with no trainer!!) in a blowout that was the death kneel for the faux school. While Johnson is on the receiving end of numerous lawsuits, the players took much of the shame and fallout. Ex-Bishop Sycamore quarterback Trilian Harris was on his way to Grambling State until the offer was pulled because of playing for that team.
BS High not only indicts the man behind the lies, but perhaps the system itself. It ponders why a Bishop Sycamore existed concerning how much money is poured into high school sports and football. In some cases, the academic side of things is secondary, and schools are used as training grounds to have athletes take the next step. That might be a fertile environment for more Roy Johnsons to rise out of the ranks –especially with the loopholes he exploited. Bomani Jones makes a good point in linking that Black athletes are the most coveted in this machine, but often the least respected in the process.
For Johnson, he claims his ill-fated program will rise again and grasps at victory for even being interviewed. The sad part about things is that he is just a metaphor for unrelenting exploitation that doesn’t seem to have any end.
