After years of research, months of production and weeks of preparation, tickets for showings of the documentary following former Crimson Tide football coach Gene Stallings are available on the documentary’s website. “Do Right: The Stallings Standard” contextualizes the story behind the 1992 national championship and the role of Stallings’ leadership.
Alabama’s own Chandra Clark, an associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media, and Michael Bruce, the department chair of Journalism and Creative Media and an associate professor, co-produced the documentary and are excited to host showings of the project.
The documentary highlights the father who used his platform in sports to advocate for development disabilities programs and the families who are a part of them.
Stallings is celebrated by the community for his dedication to special needs advocacy and family loyalty. The documentary highlights this celebration, telling his personal story and spreading the broader message of compassion and respect. The “Stallings Standard,” according to the film, means a team should hold a “commitment to doing right and approaching others with understanding and empathy.”
Stallings’ personal story, including his relationship with his late son John Mark and his contributions to the RISE Program, reflects a broader philosophy of compassion and respect. The documentary underscores Stallings’ commitment to doing right and encourages viewers to approach others with understanding and empathy.
Clark’s history with the Stallings family dates back to her volunteer work with the RISE school, where she met John Mark. It was during a players’ reunion in 2016 that former Alabama football player Christopher Sign, invited her to reconnect with the Alabama legacy and deep dive into the Stallings’ ripple effect.
Despite her personal connection to the project, Clark notes that her commitment to telling the true story was not influenced. The methodology of the documentary involved the use of over 150 interviewee narratives, archived photos and writings from the family. They also studied licensed broadcast footage from Stallings’ former football institutions, including Clemson University, Texas A&M, the Dallas Cowboys and the Phoenix Cardinals.
“It was very tough because Coach Stallings is a legend, but he had so many former players, former coaches, philanthropists, parents and RISE Schools he impacted that we could have went a lot of different directions,” Clark said. “We had to enlist the help of other producers who have done similar projects to help narrow down our themes and characters to make sure we were meeting our goal of telling an accurate story.”
Due to the controversy surrounding Stallings’ retirement in the 1990s, Clark and Bruce said the documentary was the perfect opportunity to set the record straight, highlight the Stallings era of Alabama football and emphasize the importance of a coach who developed his players by setting an example.
“In the age of NIL and players earning a salary in college, this era of football shows you how important the integrity of the game was to so many people. Discipline and ‘doing the right thing’ were so important to everything in your everyday life as well as on the football field,” Clark said.
Editor’s note: This article was updated Nov. 18 to correct an error. A previous version of this story said the full documentary is available to stream online, which is incorrect. Only the trailer is available on the documentary’s website.
