By Jim Frye
For Ray McELrathBey, Clemson University—particularly the Clemson football team—gave new meaning to the term “home-field advantage.”
The real-life Ray McELrathBey started his freshman year on a football scholarship at Clemson University, one of the most prestigious and demanding college football programs in the country. And even though he faced the same challenges that most college freshman face—new home, new people, and balancing a full academic load with his responsibilities to his team—he was hit with one challenge that nearly derailed his entire future: figuring out what to do with his 11-year-old brother Fahmarr (Fay), who was left on his own after their mother got arrested for possession.
Faced with the impossible choice of staying the course on his college scholarship or losing Fay into the foster care system, Ray decided to smuggle his younger brother into his dorm room at Clemson, which was strictly against the school’s rules and the rules of the National College Athletics Association. If found out, Ray risked losing his place on the team, his scholarship, and his future. This incredible true story is the basis for Disney+’s powerful and moving drama Safety, which explores one player’s college sports experience when put up against seemingly insurmountable odds, while ultimately redefining what it means to have community, family, and friendship.
“This is a surreal, wonderful experience,” McELrathBey said about the film during a recent press conference. “I was born in Chicago but raised outside Atlanta, and I stayed with various coaches and bounced around a little bit when I was younger. [The opportunity to attend] Clemson came during my senior year when I attended a football camp there.” His skill shone through during the camp, and McELrathBey was eventually recruited on a full football scholarship. He says that the Clemson community became like a family to him. “It was one of the better decisions I made in my life.”
When the director of Safety, Reginald Hudlin, first read the script, he knew he had to do it. “I was so excited and moved and inspired,” he says. “This young man—Ray’s 19 years old [in the film]—is taking on a level of responsibility that’s beyond most people. And I don’t care what your background is, what your education is—he’s doing too much! And, through sheer force of will, he manages to do it all. It’s a story of great individual triumph but also brotherhood—the entire community, his football team and the wider university all join in to help him.”
Central to the film, and to Ray’s story, is his drive to escape his disadvantaged background. “I was in a place I didn’t want to be, so to stay there was scary,” he says. “To have to continue to deal with the things I had to deal with—with no end in sight—was unfathomable. My ambitions came from being so scared—it was the fear of failure.”
He continues: “The most difficult part about those first few months [in college] was struggling between the line of what I was able to do, and what others were able to do. I was moving in silence and not telling a lot of people what I was doing early on. It was just being alone in my decision that was the toughest part, but once everyone found out, life became a lot easier. My teammates were always there, they were always guys I could count on. Even in the tougher times there were people I could lean on, and that was God’s gift.”
“I think this movie will speak to all those people out there who are somehow just making it, people for whom failure is not an option,” adds Hudlin. “Here’s a guy who’s just like them who worked hard and did the impossible and inspired a community by his efforts to say this guy deserves our support. And he’s earned it because of his incredible dedication.”
In a film full of people who do heroic deeds, from Ray to his coaches to his teammates, it might be surprising to hear who Ray himself considers to be the hero of this story. “If I had to pick a hero, I’d pick Fahmarr,” he says, referring to his younger brother. “Fahmarr was the catalyst that made me step up. I was a teenager, I was young, I wasn’t different from many other teenagers. But I hadn’t been asked to step up and he put me in a position where he brought leadership out of me.”
To see Ray and Fahmarr’s heroic tale, catch Safety, which premieres on Disney+ December 11, 2020.
Tonya Felicia McELrathBey, Ray McELrathBey, and Fahmarr McELrathBey behind the scenes of Safety, exclusively on Disney+.
Director Reginald Hudlin filming Safety on-site at Clemson University in South Carolina.
