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30 for 30/Sports Documentaries Discussion

HarleyQuinn

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The John Daly one was a massive disappointment as I was looking forward to it but it was just a "standard" bio that barely covered his actual golfing and kind of ran through his life. It all felt rushed and I thought it was one of the worse ones thus far.

Phi Slama Jama was great stuff though and definitely worth the watch.

Coming on December 10th is Catholics vs Convicts: The cultural impact of the notorious 1988 Notre Dame–Miami football game which could be good or feel like a rehash of 'The U' stuff.
 

HarleyQuinn

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Bible-Pounding Phony said:
Charlie Ebersol made a 30 for 30 on the XFL. It is premiering at DOC NYC tomorrow and then will air on ESPN in February.

Jericho's most recent Podcast was an interview with Charlie Ebersol. Great interview and a fun companion piece to what could be a good 30 for 30.

Episode is airing on February 2nd at 9:00/6:00.
 

KingPK

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This has been solid so far. I remember that LA debacle in week 2 of the season. Pretty much finished off the league as far as mass interest went.

I wish I could find someone who looks at me like Dick Ebersol looks at Vince.
 

HarleyQuinn

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Yeah, it was pretty solid stuff. It kind of jumped to the end pretty quickly though but I thought it was interesting that Vince referred to himself as an optimist and that he was the one pushing for a 2nd Season, hard.

Kelly Herndon and Corey Ivy were probably the biggest names not to be included/featured in the documentary aside from Maddox, Smart, and Lenon.
 

Sex Machine Gun

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I'm a little over a third into this and I want to slap Bob Costas.

EDIT: I think if they held off for another year and Vince kept his face and wrestling stuff off-camera this could have lasted much longer than one season and maybe formed a minor league for the NFL. The problem was that Vince wouldn't leave the NFL alone and let the XFL sit on its own merits, whatever those might've been.

Is it bad that I dug the Wrestling With Wregret video posted just yesterday on the XFL more than the glossy ESPN documentary?
 

Sex Machine Gun

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Now that it's over, "jumping to the end" made sense. History isn't about events themselves, it's the leadup and aftermath of those events. Still, the program presented the XFL as a flawed product (gravely so in some ways) but one which wasn't given much of a chance by the media either. I appreciate that Vince wanted to immediately say it was his fault as well.
 

909

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Considering Vince could have bought the UFC at the same time and decided to create a football league instead...yeah.
 

Sex Machine Gun

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Yeah, but that's hindsight in play. I recall Ultimate Fighting not being legal in some states still in 2000/2001. I may be wrong on this, but why would Vince buy a property he couldn't market everywhere? There's no other explanation for the XFL trying to penetrate non-NFL markets (at that time) with more than half of its teams.
 

Mickey Massuco

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Sex Machine Gun said:
Yeah, but that's hindsight in play. I recall Ultimate Fighting not being legal in some states still in 2000/2001.

It wasn't, but it was still legal in a few places. I can't remember how many, maybe not that many. The dominoes fell p. quickly after though.
 

HarleyQuinn

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Not really a 30 for 30 but this I feel is an extension of the concept

"Richard Deitsch
‏Verified account @richarddeitsch
5h5 hours ago

ESPN Films and Netflix are partnering for a multi-part 10-hour documentary about Michael Jordan. Coming out in 2019. Jordan has signed off on his participation."
 

HarleyQuinn

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The newest 30 for 30 last night covered the Buster Douglas/Mike Tyson fight. Curious to hear the thoughts of 909, AlKeiper, and YPOV(?) on this since they tend to be our Boxing knowledge guys.

As somebody who knows virtually nothing outside of the result/aftermath, I found this pretty interesting and intriguing.
 

HarleyQuinn

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alkeiper said:
What's the best way to stream it?

One option is the ESPN+ app. https://heavy.com/streaming/2018/12/watch-42-to-1-documentary-stream-online/
 

AA484

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NoCalMike used to watch boxing (I think?) but I haven't seen him around lately. I've been wanting to check that special out for a while now. I may try and catch it during lunch.
 

alkeiper

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Harley Quinn said:
The newest 30 for 30 last night covered the Buster Douglas/Mike Tyson fight. Curious to hear the thoughts of 909, AlKeiper, and YPOV(?) on this since they tend to be our Boxing knowledge guys.

As somebody who knows virtually nothing outside of the result/aftermath, I found this pretty interesting and intriguing.
I was a little disappointed. I don't think anything in the documentary was substantially inaccurate, but it left a lot out. They only mentioned the Holyfield fight in the epilogue, and they didn't mention that Douglas did not fight for six years after that and his health troubles in the interim. They didn't mention Don King attempting to get the fight overturned because of the perceived long count. I did enjoy it for what it was though, because at its core it really is a fun upset.
 

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Having watched all of Tyson's fights, I find it very interesting that people thought he would never lose in the first place. Obviously the Buster Douglas fight was a massive upset and nobody should say otherwise, but he was certainly destined to lose at some point and was not an unbeatable juggernaut. Frank Bruno rocked his world two fights before that, his personal life was a mess, and he'd fired Kevin Rooney sometime before at the behest of Don King.
 

alkeiper

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If Tyson had beaten Douglas, I wonder which challenger would have done him in. From 1990-93 he could have fought Evander Holyfield (that fight was next), Riddick Bowe, Lennox Lewis, George Foreman, maybe even Michael Moorer. We know Holyfield could beat Tyson. Lewis and Rowe had sizeable reach advantages. Foreman would've been a dangerous opponent, a veteran with huge power who wouldn't be intimidated. And people forget how good Moorer was before the Foreman fight.
 

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Bowe, Holyfield, and Lennox would certainly have beaten him. Not sure about Foreman or Moorer. Moorer getting destroyed by David Tua is burned into my brain.
 

Master Thrasher

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It isn't a 30 for 30 but I'm really liking Basketball: A Love Story. I watched the part about the Lakers/Celtics rivalry. They're covering the Patrick Ewing draft now.
 

HarleyQuinn

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The Deion Sanders 30 for 30 is tomorrow night. Very excited for it as a Sanders mark during his NFL Career (I even remember his Baltimore Ravens era run).

Fun Fact: From 1997-1999, he averaged 12.9 yards per punt return (87 punt returns). For comparison: Dante Hall from 2002-2004 averaged 13.5, Devin Hester from 2010-2012 averaged 13.4, and Brian Mitchell from 1994-1996 averaged 12.8.
 

alkeiper

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Sanders once led the National League in triples and averaged 47 steals per 162 games. It would've been interesting to see what kind of player he could be if he concentrated solely on baseball. Probably makes an All Star team.
 

alkeiper

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Greasy Neale won a World Series and coached an NFL championship team. Anyone else accomplish something like that?
 

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Bo Jackson made All-Star teams in both sports.

Charlie Ward won a Heisman Trophy, was a starter for an NBA Finals team and was also picked in two MLB drafts.
 

HarleyQuinn

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Bronko Nagurski won 3 NFL Championships and the NWA World Title to continue the wrestling tie-in.
 

KingPK

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I've been getting into the 30 for 30 podcasts lately. There's some solid stuff there like one about the first UFC event and The Lights of Wrigleyville about the fight to put lights up at Wrigley.
 

Master Thrasher

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KingPK said:
I've been getting into the 30 for 30 podcasts lately. There's some solid stuff there like one about the first UFC event and The Lights of Wrigleyville about the fight to put lights up at Wrigley.

I listened to Wrigley one. I know the team threatened to move if the lights weren't installed. I wish they would have so it would hurt everyone in Wrigleyville.
 

HarleyQuinn

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The latest 30 for 30 on Felipe Lopez was pretty fascinating, roughly a basketball version of the Marcus Dupree story.
 
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