Wednesday night in Knoxville, Tennessee, Kenny Chesney rolled out the orange carpet for the premiere of his new football documentary, The Color Orange: The Condredge Holloway Story. Kenny, who also serves as executive producer, narrates the film that documents the life and career of the University of Tennessee’s Condredge Holloway, the first starting African-American quarterback in the Southeastern Conference. Kenny Chesney told the theatre crowd that the best thing about making The Color Orange was that everyone involved with the movie “got to know the man behind the Orange number seven.” Condredge, who was also featured in Kenny’s first football documentary, The Boys of Fall, admitted that he allowed the story of his football career to be made only because Kenny had “complete control” of the project. Condredge also said that when he met fellow producers Don Lepore and Shaun Silva, it was a no-brainer. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• The Color Orange is the first in a series of specials to be made in 2011, as part of ESPN’s Year of the Quarterback initiative. The film will debut this Sunday, February 20th, at 8pm ET on ESPN.

  Kenny Chesney talks about the positive nature of his sports hero, Condredge Holloway. (:39)
“A lot of people want to talk about the fact that he didn’t play in the NFL. The NFL didn’t give him a chance to play quarterback in the NFL. But he never focused on what he didn’t have. He focused on what he had, and was thankful for it. And I mean there’s so many life lessons in Condredge’s story that I’ve learned from, and I think that when people watch this film, the one thing that I want them to take away from watching it is that we all have adversity in our life, all of us. And we all have hurdles, and God knows I’ve had ‘em, and I don’t think I’ve handled it as good as Condredge did his. And making this film on Condredge makes me want to be a better person, a better friend, better all the way around.”

  Kenny Chesney explains what having Condredge Holloway as a childhood hero meant to him. (:07)
“Condredge Holloway is the reason that I, and a lot of the guys you’re seein’ on this orange carpet, are the reasons that I love sports and am passionate about it in the first place.”

  Wednesday night, Kenny Chesney talked to the audience in Knoxville about why so many people showed up for the premiere of The Color Orange. (:34)
“I think we all know by now how much Condredge is loved by the amount of people in this room and who came to see the film tonight. Look, we all know Condredge is a great athlete and all the statistics and everything he meant to Tennessee football, but the thing that I think all of us that made this film has realized and got to know is we got to know the man behind the Orange number seven. So, we got a lot of…a lot of my heroes in here tonight that played with Condredge, a lot of my friends here tonight that came from all across the country, different parts of the world, to be here tonight because they love football and love Condredge.”

  Condredge Holloway remembers his reaction when Kenny brought up the idea about making his life into a documentary. (:41)
“When he first came…well, I guess when we first talked, I thought he was kidding. I said, ‘Pfft. Year of the quarterback — they want me? Are they actually gonna go back that far?’ You know? And he started explaining about the…you know, his love for football, and I knew all about how he wore number seven, and I was very impressed with that. And I decided, because I trusted Kenny, that I would do it only if he had full say-so and had complete control. And once I met Don [Lepore] and Shaun [Silva] it was a no-brainer. I mean it was gonna get done, and it was gonna be done professionally, and I was all in.”

  Condredge Holloway talks about how he handled certain challenges when he played football. (:37)
“You know, you have choices in everything you do, and if you walk out one end of an opposing team’s stadium, and you hear these things that you’re not…that you really don’t want to hear, there is always another way to walk out. And that’s what I’d always do. And I just felt comfortable doing it that way. I felt comfortable with my teammates, and I always stayed with them. And I never let it get to a point where something bothered me so much that I felt like I had to do something about it. Like one thing I…a good friend of mine told me a long time ago: ‘Silence never gets misquoted.’”

  Condredge Holloway, normally a private man, says it was easy to tell Kenny his story. (:21)
“I don’t like sharing my business with a lot of people, especially people I don’t know. I’m just not comfortable doing that, but I was really comfortable with Kenny. And the rest of it was just…we just…it just rolled off. It was so good. It was so wonderful doing it, and it was just like we were just having a conversation.”

  Condredge Holloway didn’t know who Kenny was until he was contacted about being in the football documentaries. (:37)
“The way Kenny and I met was through a mutual friend, and I had no idea who he was. I really didn’t. But he was such a great guy, and he was so passionate about football. And then the more I got to know him, I went, that’s a…he’s a star! He’s hanging out with a half…you know, a washed-up football player. So, we just kind of hit it off, and he’s been so honest and open about his feelings for football and my jersey and watching me play and all that other stuff. And so when he came to me with the idea, I said, ‘Look, Kenny, if you want to do it, and you’re gonna be in control of it, I’ll do it.’”