Roy Johnson's Bishop Sycamore scam explored in 'BS High' documentary at Tribeca

Roy Johnson is a documentarian’s dream.

As Martin Desmond Roe, co-director of the new film “BS High,” put it, “It was very clear he was going to be one of the most amazing interview subjects of our career . . . Compelling, interesting, hilarious, vulnerable, extremely untrustworthy.”

Upon hearing that last part, Johnson himself shouted, “Ouch!” in protest as Roe spoke after the world premiere at the Tribeca Festival on Wednesday.

Roe noted Johnson’s presence in the audience and added, “It’s a portrait of con man – or a ‘con-ish’ man,” using a description Johnson has of himself in the film, which will premiere on HBO and stream on MAX later this summer.

The film is ostensibly about a scam high school in Ohio that was exposed after ESPN televised a football game it lost to IMG Academy, 58-0, in 2021, and more broadly about money and corruption in school sports.

But it also is a fascinating character study centered on Johnson, who grew up in Greenlawn and is both charismatic and cunning.

As executive producer Michael Strahan spoke after the film, he looked directly at Johnson and said: “Innocence and desperation can be exploited. In this film, that’s what it shows. I always say this, and Roy, this is for you: It’s never the right time to do the wrong thing – ever – in life."

Johnson left the theater quietly, monitored by security personnel for his own safety, after filmgoers – including some of the players he exploited – had spent 90 minutes watching his scam deconstructed on the big screen.

Johnson said he caught the football management bug as an intern with the Jets in the late 1990s.

He founded Bishop Sycamore High School – whose initials provide the film’s suitable title – to help young men, often from difficult backgrounds, prepare for college both on the field and academically.

But things quickly went awry, including the nagging detail that there was not an actual high school attached to the football team. Johnson also was not a fan of other details, such as paying the team’s bills for products and services.

An Ohio high school sports official and a local journalist were on to Johnson, but it was not until that nationally televised debacle against powerful IMG on Sept. 27, 2021, that the house of cards finally collapsed in its fourth season.

Strahan and his production company jumped on the project early – something that Johnson boasts about in the film, as if hearing from the former Giant and Pro Football Hall of Famer validated his actions.

“I looked at it as a young man at one point who had the same dream as all these young men who are here,” Strahan said, referring to the players at the premiere.

“I look at the dream that they had and the life that I’ve lived, and there was a lot of luck involved in my life, because I played one year of football in high school.

“But at the same time, it’s about the people who influence you, the trust that you have in adults, people you trust would have your interests at heart . . . I know you didn’t do anything wrong. You just trusted the wrong person. But it’s not your fault.

“You were going for a dream that millions of kids in this country go for and some of you are still going for it. I hope you make it, but it is one tough-ass business."

Strahan, Roe and his fellow Academy Award-winning co-director, Travon Free, all noted that while Sycamore was an extreme case, its tale speaks to a larger problem with money and sports trumping academics at the high school level.

“There’s so much money in this high school sports world, and the kids aren’t getting any of it, and that’s not right,” Roe said.

Strahan added, “Like Roy said in the film, ‘If it’s not me then it’s somebody else.’ Maybe this shines some light that this system has a lot of flaws that need to be corrected, because we have to protect these kids.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.