This should suck because its ESPN but I'm prepared to say that it looks like it might be really fucking awesome so I'm thinking it may go down as the last good thing ESPN does.

The basic premise is 30 sports documentaries done by actual Hollywood directors about stories from the last 30 years.

Bill Simmons essay

Trailer

cool idea, hope they can pull it off...well at least make half of em good.

Ice Cube.


Seriously though, this looks pretty damn interesting, and I hope they make them available online and/or on DVD because I know I'm going to want the one on the Bmore Colts band by Barry Levinson and the one on Len Bias.

What about The Players Club?

Cube may not be on the level of say, an Albert Maysles but he's been in enough films and I'd assume knows enough people to hopefully make his film work.

Well, it did star a Oscar-winner, so ok.

Yeah, this whole series looks great. Behind The Music for sports.

now bill simmons is going to be even more of a smug egotistical douche

i saw the ad for this during the trailers of last nights movie, looks extremely interesting

This isn't that compelling.

Hancock.

No, I meant the Gretzky doc that I just switched off to watch The Next Iron Chef.

actually, you probably liked Hancock.

Sweet Jesus, William Donald Schaefer looks terrible.

two of the three seasons of the Friday Night Lights TV show have been just about perfect.

Yeah tell me about it.



This was taken before the current guv, and he looks like he's an extra in the next George Romero flick.

Is Harry Hughes still alive?

FR, did you see "The Band That Wouldn't Die"? I realize Schaefer is damn near 90, but he has aged 15 years in the two he's been out of office. I actually glanced at Wikipedia to see if he were diseased.

Nope. I didn't. I keep hoping to dl it or something. I don't have cable, and no one I knew was around that night. I was actually thinking of going down to that party they had at M & T, but didn't feel like driving to and from.

Hughes is actually younger than Schaeffer.

I wasn't impressed. Granted, I didn't get here until '85, after the Colts had already left. I loved the two CFL seasons and went to several games.

I always found the band to be a lot like keeping a photo of your ex-girlfriend on your desk. Levinson also plays too much into the Fuck Irsay camp, since Baltimore is damn determined to whine about Irsay rather than admit that it really wasn't that simple. Carroll Rosenbloom had pledged to move them in 1972, in the years leading up to the move attendance was shit, and the state senate had passed a bill giving the state the right to use eminent domain to keep the team in Baltimore.

And that's without the whole giant stadium issue, since I don't support taxpayers building stadiums for old rich guys.

Granted there is more to the story than Irsay, but being from the area born and raised, it was bred into my blood. Irsay is still a dirty word 'round many households. My dad still refuses to call Indianapolis by their name, but rather the Indianapolis Irsays.

The blow would've been softened had Indianapolis taken a different name. I think that's one thing that Modell actually did do right. I would have felt a lot more guilty if we would've taken the Browns name. Or if Cleveland didn't get back their team within 5 years.

The CFL seasons were amazing. I went to a bunch, including a ton during the Grey Cup run. Tracy Ham.

I love that show, but I believe he only executive produces at this point, as opposed to showrunning.

When Mom & Dad were moving in August, I found a couple CFL ticket stubs in a box of my old junk. Mike Pringle!

I've liked both the episodes so far. I'm way excited about the Iverson one.

I still have my tickets and programs somewhere in boxes of stuff at home. I might even have a giveaway team photo as well. I used to have a Baltimore Colts tee and hat when they originally set the team up.

I also remember going to one of the local Baltimore malls which had the Grey Cup on display. You could touch it, pick it up, etc. They would never let you do that with the Lombardi.

I didn't know much about the usfl, other than a few of the big names that started there, but as scattered as the storytelling of this one is, I'm strangely compelled and really entertained by this story.