Most sports activities documentaries focus on a championship staff, an underdog squad or an athlete searching for redemption.

But not “We Are: The Brooklyn Saints.” The new Netflix docuseries, which premieres Friday, follows a youth football program (ages 7 to 13) in East New York, Brooklyn, by way of their 2019 season, and reveals the softer facet of football.

“Prior to beginning manufacturing, I met up with a producer, who shall stay anonymous, nevertheless it’s somebody I actually respect,” director Rudy Valdez informed The Post. “I used to be like, ‘I’m about to begin this sequence about this football staff.’ And the producer stated to me, ‘That’s superb. It’s simply too unhealthy that except your staff goes undefeated and wins a nationwide championship, you do not actually have a narrative.’ ”

Valdez dug in his heels. “That does not make sense to me,” he stated.

Indeed, the Brooklyn Saints had an unremarkable season, with no trophy to hoist within the air. But Valdez — who won an Emmy for his HBO documentary “The Sentence” — discovered magic within the touchingly human storylines that play out throughout the framework of the gridiron. “We Are: The Brooklyn Saints” gives a soulful meditation on boyhood, fatherhood and perseverance.

For occasion, one of many staff dads, Dave, needed to transfer his household of 4 50 miles north of the town in order that he may assist out his mom. Every morning, he wakes up at 4:30 to drive his sons, Aiden, 8, and high-school scholar Dave Jr. to their colleges again in Brooklyn. They do not come house till nighttime, after Aiden finishes follow with the Saints, the place Dave additionally volunteers.

“We solely sleep upstate. We nonetheless stay in Brooklyn,” he says within the first episode. Aiden, the Saints’ resident thinker and scene-stealer, provides, “Upstate is like my trip. And Brooklyn is simply all enterprise about football and college.”

Valdez stated he was impressed to comply with the Brooklyn Saints after studying Albert Samaha’s 2018 e book, “Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing Inner City,” a few now-defunct youth football program in Brooklyn. “It actually delved into the lives of the characters and have become a football e book that wasn’t a football e book,” stated Valdez. The holdovers from that staff went on to discovered the Saints.

Valdez additionally focuses his lens on Kenan, an eighth-grader and quarterback for the oldest squad. He’s an aspiring engineer who spends simply as a lot time competing in robotics as he does football, however his household hopes that pigskin will assist pay his faculty tab, prefer it did for his older brothers.

Then there is Coach Gawuala, who is a resident hype man and an atom bomb of human power. He invented this system’s signature three-tap handshake, and its mantra of “ADD” which implies “Any Darn Day.”

“We train the youngsters fundamentals of football. We train them methods to be younger males . . . They say it takes a village to lift a baby. Well, the Brooklyn Saints is that village,” says Gawuala within the sequence.

Another trope of inner-city documentaries that Valdez ditched: the concept of the absentee father. In truth, the Saints run on the fumes of dads, who coach and inhabit the sidelines for each practices and video games.

“It was refreshing that there was an abundance of fatherhood and male function fashions. I needed to honor that,” stated Valdez, who did not shrink back from uncomfortable moments, both.

Dalontai, or “D-Lo,” is each the captain and quarterback of the Under 9 squad. In one scene, his father, Coach Vick, will get stopped by the police and must go to the station to resolve a authorized challenge. He misses the sport, one thing he pledged he’d by no means do. During a robust coronary heart to coronary heart, he takes accountability, and explains to D-Lo that he did not show sufficient private self-discipline.

“The lesson is realized,” he says.

The fathers and coaches are additionally demonstrative, shelling out hugs and expressions of affection as they do recommendation on type and fundamentals.

“These males show their vulnerability and love and affection, hugging these youngsters and letting them know it is OK to fail, it is OK to cry,” Valdez stated. “The hardest and most essential a part of teaching and mentoring is educating the gamers to stand up and combat once more and perceive that you just be taught from failure.”

Or as D-Lo places it within the show, “Be respectful, have enjoyable and do not take into consideration the previous.”