Monday's Hero

Synopsis

Chris Campbell, is a success story in major collegiate athletics. A former star All-American football player for the Western State University Geminis and now a lawyer in one of the most prestigious law firms in the city. While at today’s “big game” he sees young, star quarterback, Bernie Shaw, the son of legendary Coach Rusty Shaw, win for the Geminis, vaulting them into the nationally prominent Hawaiian Bowl game in six weeks. That night, things turn ugly: three of the Gemini players, celebrating and drunk, are arrested in a savage, fatal beating of a young gay man, Jerry Hyde. With strong incriminating evidence, very little experience in murder cases and vying against the state’s most vengeful prosecutor, Abalardo Vas, Chris is thrust into the role of defending the players and the fate of the university football program.

As Chris delves into the case, he is torn between blindly protecting the football program out of loyalty versus purely seeking the truth. He experiences the football program’s corruption at the university and in the town. He witnesses the expedience of Police Chief Harold and the University Chancellor Conrad to get to the prestigious Hawaiian Bowl. Chris feels a sense of moral duty when he encounters the grieving parents of Jerry Hyde. His pursuit finds weakness in legendary Coach Shaw’s program and deceit dealing with Eric the Geminis offensive co-ordinator (who also is his brother-in-law), the three accused and Bernie Shaw. In time, Chris finds he is very much alone. He discovers his law firm is leaving for the big city without him, that a back room deal has been struck in the case behind his back and Chris is further alienated when he rescues prosecutor Vas from a beating by some of the current football players.

Finally, through a kickstart of passion for the law and his past knowledge of football, Chris switches tactics. He finds a way to get the whole story out of the three accused players, shockingly he realizes they could not have killed Jerry Hyde. He also learns Eric was at the scene of the crime, but he too, is innocent. In a bittersweet ending, Chris, now with all the evidence, confronts Bernie in the cavernous, empty Gemini football stadium. Bernie, totally exposed, confesses he knew Jerry Hyde and killed him in a jealous rage on that fateful night. Ultimately, for Chris, this was the All-American thing to do.