I loved the Last Dance. Who didn't. Yes, we should note Michael Jordan was involved in the production and had final rights, but ultimately it was fascinating, entertaining, lived up to the hype, and showcased the best basketball player ever in a way that honored him, and his team (including Phil Jackson who looked golden in this) perfectly.
It did get me thinking what other topics could I do with a 10-part (or even 6-part, like OJ: Made in America) ESPN lens. Some of these are half-baked, or more personally important than culturally relevant, but to me they would all be fascinating.
** Barry Bonds & Roger Clemens
Well, here is one where we definitely can't get Bonds or Clemens to have the same amount of control as MJ did. That said, they need to be interviewed. We need a real story. We also need both to admit they did it (as I'm assuming Lance Armstrong will do in his upcoming 30 for 30), and we need to actually examine the reasons why they did. We also need to get into how damn good they both were, how they were rail-roaded by media and the game, how everyone overlooked the steroid use all around baseball to hyper-focus on these two guys that were all time greats before the time even people think they started to use steroids. In reality, this is an examination of baseball itself, framed around the best two players of their era, adn the best two players of most eras.
** Peyton Manning and the Colts, from Week 16, 2009, through Luck's Retirement
This is a pet dream of mine, because the whole story makes so much damn, harrowing, sense. So it is anchored by the decision for the Colts to rest their starters in Week 16, 2009, when 14-0. Despite it working on its face - a healthy Colts team easily went to the Super Bowl - it was the turning point for the Manning era. The world turned on Bill Polian, and Jim Irsay listened to the world. 27 months later, Peyton was cut, because Irsay so badly wanted to turn the page. He drafts Luck, who has a messy seven year career before his own sudden retirement, in the process torpedoeing a great run. Manning on the other hand rebuilds his arm and his career in Denver putting up an insane four year run. There's so much going on here, the greatness of Manning's whole career; the end of Camelot; the palace intrigue of Manning getting cut after his icy performacne during the Indy Super Bowl, the whole resting the starters saga, the madness of ChuckStrong and the Pagano years. All of it. The Colts entered Week 16, 2009, with the brightest outlook of any team in teh NFL. A decade later it was all in shambles two rebuilds later.
** Federer & Nadal
This is one of the two topics I can actually see getting a 10-part series at some point (though maybe they'll lop in Djokovic as well). Roger Federer won the 2003 Wimbledon. 16 years later, he won nineteen other majors, and Nadal won nineteen himself. They were the greatest of rivals and opposites from 2004-2008, a time period where basically the only time a peerless Federer lost was either to Nadal or some bizarre upset. Then Nadal himself becomes dominant. Then of course there's the career downturn both had to some degree from 2013-2016, before their triumphant return in 2017 with their simultaneous runs to the Australian Open Final, which of course was the kickoff of career renaissances, not nostalgic moments. Federer and Nadal also took their sports to new heights, evolved from rivals to something close to friends, became basically two of the most recognizable sportsmen globally (maybe the most recognizable apart from Messi and Cristiano). For taking their sport to a new level, and playing more memorable matches than you can name - be it the '08 Wimby, or Fed breaking down on the trophy stand in the '09 Oz, to him paying Rafa back in 2017. It was all a dream for tennis fans and sportsmen globally.
** Zidane: The Headbutt through B2B2B UCLs
Honestly, you could do a whole 2-3 episodes on the damn headbutt. I'm shocked it wasn't a 30 for 30. I've long called it the most known sports moment of the 2000s (2000 - 2009) given it happened during a World Cup Final, to an extremely well known athlete, making the final appearance of his legendary career. To many who weren't so soccer literate, he become something of a pariah. In France, there were raging debates on if he was a hero, a martyr, a villain, or all three. What people seemed to forget was he was also a magnetic personality, a sporting genius, and someone who was quiet for a good seven years after the headbutt aside from random Adidas campaigns. And then he was named an Assistant to Carlo Ancelotti. You can tie in the whole chase for La Decima, but that isn't Zidane's story. What is is him becoming something of a soccer-ized Phil Jackson, a master of man management, of juggling dozens of large personalities, and leading his own threepeat. The idea on its face of one of the all time great players doing something in his first three years as manager that no manager had ever done (win back-to-back-to-back Champions Leagues, by the way, no one had won two straight) is astounding. Doing it to someone who was so well known for something else is even more crazy. Zidane's 2006 World Cup, interlaced with his whole career could be episodes 1-4. Then maybe 1-2 on his weird malaise, followed by four straight of him being the greatest manager (for a three year period) in a row. Astounding stuff.
** Tiger Woods 2006-2019
This is also one I assume gets made, probably with the same issue of Tiger Woods's involvement. That is more problematic with Tiger than MJ as there is a lot of baggage to delve into. I'm picking 2006 to start mostly because that is the year his Dad died, which was seen by many as the pivotal tragedy that pushed Tiger in a bad way. That said, you could easily do a whole career retrospective. Anyway, 2006 was peak Tiger 2.0, but the real story is Tiger 3.0, which started Thanksgiving weekend 2009, and then 4.0, 5.0, up to what is like 20.0 now - a triumphant Champion. Tiger Woods was close to MJ in terms of global notoriety but his downfall so much more dramatic, so painful, but also so unavoidably salacious. We can also then tie in celebrity culture, with Tiger's outing as a sex addict being a driving force in TMZ being legitimized. We can loop in the idea of sex addiction itself, of depression and loss (Tiger's hollowness after his father's death, doing things like training with Navy seals). But then there's always the redemption story, coming from the re-rock bottom of his arrest being zonked out on painkillers behind the wheel. To think that man, with that horrible, sad, depressing mugshot, would win the masters two years later was insane.
** Spygate Patriots
Let's save the best for last. At some point we will probably get a Last Dance type look at the whole Belichick/Brady Patriots. Already ESPN announced some vomit-inducing Tom Brady 9 Super Bowl retrospective. Anyway, miss me with all that. We don't need to hear about the souless 2010-2019 Patriots. Let's talk about the team that is still the most notable single-season team in US sports history. Ger your 73-9 Warriors out of here, or 1998 Yankees out of there. The 16-0 (or 18-1!) Patriots were far more captivating, for better or worse. You start with Spygate, and everything around that. Then go through the most dominant 8-game stretch in NFL history, where not only were they blowing teams out, they were rubbing it in, repeatedly keeping starters in, throwing on 4th down in the 4th quarter, doing just ludicrous stuff. Then we get the 2nd half when they finally started playing human, escaping Indy, Philly and Baltimore, but the chase for 16-0 took over football. Week 17 being the coronation, but also the preview of their ultimate failure. The Patriots 16-0 team took over football, even in a year where there would be three other great teams. They looked unstoppable, shrouded in infamy and disdain. The legacy of those Patriots would be how they changed football with an offense so many would try to copy, but so few could match. Everything about that team was dramatic, insane and worth diving deeper into.
It did get me thinking what other topics could I do with a 10-part (or even 6-part, like OJ: Made in America) ESPN lens. Some of these are half-baked, or more personally important than culturally relevant, but to me they would all be fascinating.
** Barry Bonds & Roger Clemens
Well, here is one where we definitely can't get Bonds or Clemens to have the same amount of control as MJ did. That said, they need to be interviewed. We need a real story. We also need both to admit they did it (as I'm assuming Lance Armstrong will do in his upcoming 30 for 30), and we need to actually examine the reasons why they did. We also need to get into how damn good they both were, how they were rail-roaded by media and the game, how everyone overlooked the steroid use all around baseball to hyper-focus on these two guys that were all time greats before the time even people think they started to use steroids. In reality, this is an examination of baseball itself, framed around the best two players of their era, adn the best two players of most eras.
** Peyton Manning and the Colts, from Week 16, 2009, through Luck's Retirement
This is a pet dream of mine, because the whole story makes so much damn, harrowing, sense. So it is anchored by the decision for the Colts to rest their starters in Week 16, 2009, when 14-0. Despite it working on its face - a healthy Colts team easily went to the Super Bowl - it was the turning point for the Manning era. The world turned on Bill Polian, and Jim Irsay listened to the world. 27 months later, Peyton was cut, because Irsay so badly wanted to turn the page. He drafts Luck, who has a messy seven year career before his own sudden retirement, in the process torpedoeing a great run. Manning on the other hand rebuilds his arm and his career in Denver putting up an insane four year run. There's so much going on here, the greatness of Manning's whole career; the end of Camelot; the palace intrigue of Manning getting cut after his icy performacne during the Indy Super Bowl, the whole resting the starters saga, the madness of ChuckStrong and the Pagano years. All of it. The Colts entered Week 16, 2009, with the brightest outlook of any team in teh NFL. A decade later it was all in shambles two rebuilds later.
** Federer & Nadal
This is one of the two topics I can actually see getting a 10-part series at some point (though maybe they'll lop in Djokovic as well). Roger Federer won the 2003 Wimbledon. 16 years later, he won nineteen other majors, and Nadal won nineteen himself. They were the greatest of rivals and opposites from 2004-2008, a time period where basically the only time a peerless Federer lost was either to Nadal or some bizarre upset. Then Nadal himself becomes dominant. Then of course there's the career downturn both had to some degree from 2013-2016, before their triumphant return in 2017 with their simultaneous runs to the Australian Open Final, which of course was the kickoff of career renaissances, not nostalgic moments. Federer and Nadal also took their sports to new heights, evolved from rivals to something close to friends, became basically two of the most recognizable sportsmen globally (maybe the most recognizable apart from Messi and Cristiano). For taking their sport to a new level, and playing more memorable matches than you can name - be it the '08 Wimby, or Fed breaking down on the trophy stand in the '09 Oz, to him paying Rafa back in 2017. It was all a dream for tennis fans and sportsmen globally.
** Zidane: The Headbutt through B2B2B UCLs
Honestly, you could do a whole 2-3 episodes on the damn headbutt. I'm shocked it wasn't a 30 for 30. I've long called it the most known sports moment of the 2000s (2000 - 2009) given it happened during a World Cup Final, to an extremely well known athlete, making the final appearance of his legendary career. To many who weren't so soccer literate, he become something of a pariah. In France, there were raging debates on if he was a hero, a martyr, a villain, or all three. What people seemed to forget was he was also a magnetic personality, a sporting genius, and someone who was quiet for a good seven years after the headbutt aside from random Adidas campaigns. And then he was named an Assistant to Carlo Ancelotti. You can tie in the whole chase for La Decima, but that isn't Zidane's story. What is is him becoming something of a soccer-ized Phil Jackson, a master of man management, of juggling dozens of large personalities, and leading his own threepeat. The idea on its face of one of the all time great players doing something in his first three years as manager that no manager had ever done (win back-to-back-to-back Champions Leagues, by the way, no one had won two straight) is astounding. Doing it to someone who was so well known for something else is even more crazy. Zidane's 2006 World Cup, interlaced with his whole career could be episodes 1-4. Then maybe 1-2 on his weird malaise, followed by four straight of him being the greatest manager (for a three year period) in a row. Astounding stuff.
** Tiger Woods 2006-2019
This is also one I assume gets made, probably with the same issue of Tiger Woods's involvement. That is more problematic with Tiger than MJ as there is a lot of baggage to delve into. I'm picking 2006 to start mostly because that is the year his Dad died, which was seen by many as the pivotal tragedy that pushed Tiger in a bad way. That said, you could easily do a whole career retrospective. Anyway, 2006 was peak Tiger 2.0, but the real story is Tiger 3.0, which started Thanksgiving weekend 2009, and then 4.0, 5.0, up to what is like 20.0 now - a triumphant Champion. Tiger Woods was close to MJ in terms of global notoriety but his downfall so much more dramatic, so painful, but also so unavoidably salacious. We can also then tie in celebrity culture, with Tiger's outing as a sex addict being a driving force in TMZ being legitimized. We can loop in the idea of sex addiction itself, of depression and loss (Tiger's hollowness after his father's death, doing things like training with Navy seals). But then there's always the redemption story, coming from the re-rock bottom of his arrest being zonked out on painkillers behind the wheel. To think that man, with that horrible, sad, depressing mugshot, would win the masters two years later was insane.
** Spygate Patriots
Let's save the best for last. At some point we will probably get a Last Dance type look at the whole Belichick/Brady Patriots. Already ESPN announced some vomit-inducing Tom Brady 9 Super Bowl retrospective. Anyway, miss me with all that. We don't need to hear about the souless 2010-2019 Patriots. Let's talk about the team that is still the most notable single-season team in US sports history. Ger your 73-9 Warriors out of here, or 1998 Yankees out of there. The 16-0 (or 18-1!) Patriots were far more captivating, for better or worse. You start with Spygate, and everything around that. Then go through the most dominant 8-game stretch in NFL history, where not only were they blowing teams out, they were rubbing it in, repeatedly keeping starters in, throwing on 4th down in the 4th quarter, doing just ludicrous stuff. Then we get the 2nd half when they finally started playing human, escaping Indy, Philly and Baltimore, but the chase for 16-0 took over football. Week 17 being the coronation, but also the preview of their ultimate failure. The Patriots 16-0 team took over football, even in a year where there would be three other great teams. They looked unstoppable, shrouded in infamy and disdain. The legacy of those Patriots would be how they changed football with an offense so many would try to copy, but so few could match. Everything about that team was dramatic, insane and worth diving deeper into.
