With Fall just around the corner, football season is once again upon us. And, with that comes several football-related documentaries hitting the various streaming services. Having taken a look at a handful of them (I’m a sucker for a sport documentary – I honestly think it might be the sole reason I keep up with my Netflix subscription at this point, but that’s a topic for another piece), I’ll give you a run down on what’s new out there that you might want to check out to get hyped for Fall football.
Hard Knocks: The New York Jets – HBO/Max
Now in its 20th installment (including in-season episodes in addition to the traditional pre-season shows that have aired the past two years), the series made its way to the New York Jets for the first time in its history. The major story of the season was, unsurprisingly, the debut of Aaron Rodgers as the Jets’ new quarterback (following Rodgers’ demand to be traded from the Packers after a season and change of disappointment at his long-time home). While it was interesting to see how one of the greatest – and often oddest – quarterbacks in NFL history would acclimate to a new home (particularly one that has been so wholly unlucky over the past twenty or so years – and that’s being generous), this season has lacked the focus on diamond in the rough rookies that past seasons’ have thrived on. One of the best parts about watching Hard Knocks is getting to know players and coaches you might not know about – the people who don’t get the headlines or make the major bucks, or even make the team. This season, the Aaron Rodgers of it all has taken up so much air time – and air in the room – that there hasn’t been much time to learn about the new players who are fighting for a spot on the team. It’s a disappointing outing for a series that has so often allowed us incredible access to incredible stories.
Hard Knocks is streaming on Max.
Untold: Swamp Kings – Netflix
I vividly remember the rise of Tim Tebow at the University of Florida in 2006. I was in college myself, although I was watching the last gasps of my school – Notre Dame – attempting to stay at the top with the big boys right before the bottom would fall out of the program. So, I was very aware of Florida’s rise to the top of the college football landscape, the arrival of Tebow as a potential UF savior, and Urban Meyer’s arrival in Gainsville. In the years since the successes of that University of Florida football team, information has come out to suggest that this wasn’t the well-oiled machine of brute strength, determination, and teamwork that one might think it was based on the story told in Swamp Kings. In fact, it’s shocking that the docuseries could purport to tell the story of the 2005-2010 University of Florida football program and not dive deeper into some of the team’s more complex and dark corners.
Aaron Hernandez was a star tight end for the team, before going on to be a star tight end for the New England Patriots, before taking his own life while in prison after being convicted of murder. Sure, the documentary mentions Hernandez was involved in a fight while in school, but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that Hernandez was already spiraling while at Florida – and that the coaching staff had little true control over him. It certainly didn’t help that the Pouncey twins, Mike and Maurkice, two offensive linemen for the team, were partnered up with Hernandez to help him stay on the straight and narrow when the duo would prove time and again once they reached the NFL that they lacked the necessary common sense to keep their own selves in check. While the documentary does touch on some of the off-the-field incidents that plagued the team during its success (and some offenses, like players being found in possession of minor amount of marijuana, are much more trivial now than they would have been back then), the hand-waving and excuses offered not just by the players but by Meyer are really disappointing to hear. When you think about how some players from this team ended up post-college, you can look back and see a coach who was exacting about on-the-field output but who was willing to make excuses for players when they got caught screwing up and see a direct line to how some of the players ended their careers with their continued illegal activities once they were on their own.
For a documentary that wants to tell the story of the championship reign of the Gators, it manages to hit on the highs while ignoring the lows that occurred around them. And that’s just a major miss in focus and storytelling. I can understand that some subjects likely didn’t want to talk about some of their more infamous teammates – and a four-episode docuseries isn’t enough time to dive into something like the Hernandez situation – but you can’t just gloss over the black eyes that came with the immense successes. Sure, this was a hard-nosed and dedicated college football team that took the mantle of the toughest college football conference, but there were casualties that came about thanks to that success and the ability of coaches and players to look the other way when it was clear there was a need for greater oversight of some players. And not talking about that side of things is a major mistake in a documentary like this one.
Swamp Kings is streaming on Netflix.
God, Family, Football – FreeVee/Prime Video
The only potentially continual series (taking into account that Hard Knocks essentially reboots with a new team to focus on each year) of this list, God, Family, Football follows the Evangel Christian Academy high school football team in Shreveport, LA – a school that once won state championships with relative ease and has fallen into a malaise over the past several seasons. Former championship coach Denny Duron – who also happens to be the son of the school’s founding couple – returns to hopefully whip the team into shape. High school football documentaries are often interesting – the balancing of family, friends, and sports can make for a potent mix of storytelling options. However, this series never really gets off the ground. Interesting stories start to form – such as the star QB and his twin brother (a wide receiver), whose absent father was not only a star at the school in his youth but who also went on to be a star college athlete before going pro, as well – only to be dropped before any real resolution is reached. The series needed to tighten its focus more on a select set of players or the coaches in order to give us arcs to follow over the course of the season. Instead, we’re introduced to players or assistant coaches who more or less disappear from the story after an episode or two, leaving us to wonder what happened to them or how they fit into the game plan moving forward.
God, Football, Family is streaming on FreeVee/Prime Video.
BS High – HBO
Speaking of high school football, no high school story captured the sports world faster and with more fervor that the 2021 saga of Bishop Sycamore, the Ohio high school that found itself matched up against IMG Academy for a prime time ESPN showdown only to reveal that not only were its players not the elite recruits the team’s coach, Roy Johnson, claimed they were, but the school didn’t actually exist at all. If you’re looking for a compelling, at times mesmerizing, documentary, this is the one for you. With interviews with multiple players from the team – who were duped just as much as the rest of the country – as well as extensive interviews with Johnson – who proves himself to be a master con man with no empathy at all – the story flows easily and the curtain is pulled back to show just how much damage this scam inflicted on the kids who were taken for a ride. It’s heartbreaking to see how Johnson’s unfettered greed – for money, yes, but also apparently a drive for infamy drove this con to continue – hurt so many young men who had dreams of getting college scholarships absolutely crushed by Johnson’s actions. We’ve heard a lot lately about the greed driving actions in college football, but this is an example of how that greed trickles down into what is essentially youth sports, allowing a man to get teens and their parents to buy into the hopes of a college scholarship to help line his pockets along the way.
BS High is streaming on Max.
