Anyone else been watching these? For those who don’t know, ESPN has produced a series of 30 one hour long documentaries about the biggest stories in sports in the last 30 years. These aren’t amateur films either; some of the people directing include Barry Levinson, Peter Berg, Spike Jonze, Ron Shelton, Joel Surnow, and Ice Cube. Tuesday night is the fourth film, titled Muhammad and Larry, and is about Muhammad Ali losing to Larry Holmes at the end of his career. If you’re interested here is the 30 for 30 website.
The first film, Kings Ransom, was about the 1989 trade of Wayne Gretzky to the LA Kings, and directed by Peter Berg (creator/director of Friday Night Lights). This was probably the single biggest story in hockey in the last 20 years. Gretzky left an Edmonton Oilers team that had just won its fourth Stanley Cup in five years to go to the second worst team in the NHL. He had just had what is arguably the best single season ever by a hockey player, was on a team that was a legitimate dynasty, and was one of if not the biggest celebrities in Canada. The film talks to all the major players in the deal (Peter Pocklington, owner of the Oilers, Bruce McNall, owner of the Kings, Glenn Sather, coach of the Oilers, and of course Gretzky himself) and retells a dark time in Canadian hockey wonderfully. Wayne Gretzky is surprisingly candid about his thought process at the time and how it feels now looking back on the situation.
The second film, The Band That Wouldn’t Die, was about the Baltimore Colts marching band and how they stayed active even after the Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1983. It was directed by Barry Levinson (best known as the director of Rain Man) and was the best of the three shown so far. I got my girlfriend, who only tolerates sports, to watch it with me by telling her it was about a marching band and even she thought it was great. The story is just incredible: after the football team packs up and leaves in the middle of the night, the Baltimore Colts marching band decided that they would stay together and do everything they could to get a professional football team back in Baltimore. This was an emotionally powerful film and shows just how much sports can unite people, and how it’s more than just a game but a cultural significance.
The third film, Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?, was about the rise and fall of the spring football league known as the USFL and was probably the most interesting of the three films so far. Mike Tollin (director of Radio and producer of Smallville, among other things) directed this film about the USFL and how Donald Trump was instrumental in its downfall. Tollin ran the production house that did all of the highlights and game films for the USFL and provides excellent insight on how a fledgling football league built up an impressive product on the field in the sprigtime and eventually tried and failed to go head to head with the NFL in the fall. I knew nothing about the USFL having been born the year it started, and was amazed at the impact it had on football as we know it today.The best part of the film is hearing from the players, many of which couldn’t make it in the NFL and were playing as much for the love of the game as anything, and just how much fun they had in this league.
As I said earlier the fourth film will be Tuesday night on ESPN and I highly recommend that you check it out, even if you only have a passing interest in sports.