As I mentioned a couple posts ago, this time around the blogosphere I am going to talk about a few things other than business and Best Buy. My stuff will still overwhelmingly be that but I want to get into some other stuff that I just feel like telling people about. If you just want the business stuff, I guess, just skip these occasional off main topic musings. So here goes.
For people that don’t know me, I am a sports fanatic. I played professional level tennis many years ago and actually was the US National champion in an obscure sport called Platform Tennis in the early 1990s (you can look it up on Google if you don’t believe me). Anyway, my love of sports and marketing has made me a raving ESPN fan. Sports fanatics you know what I am talking about. ESPN knows who pays the bills so incredibly well and, as a result, consistently delivers outstanding content whether it be over the air, online, podcasts, radio, print you name it. To me it’s almost all good. I couldn’t live without ESPN . Through ESPN, I have become acquainted (not personally) with the work of Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy, who I believe is the best sports commentator/writer on the planet (its actually hard to classify what Bill is). Bill speaks in the voice of a passionate sports fan, is extremely knowledgeable and very funny to boot (was also a writer on the Jimmy Kimmel show). His column on the Atrocious GM Summit is (http://tinyurl.com/mg79ju) the funniest sports piece I have ever read. Bill’s latest project, a series of sports documentaries called “30 For 30,” is pure genius. His premise was simple, for the most part, the sports documentary genre was bad. So, in order to commemorate ESPN’s 30 year anniversary, Bill rallied the big wigs at ESPN to produce the making of 30 sports documentaries that capture the most significant events in sports and culture during this time. To ensure that these documentaries would be great, Bill and team sought out film directors who were both influential and had some interest in sport and told them to do the movie that they wanted to with little to no interference from ESPN. This premise got an amazing stable of directors on board “to make the film they wanted to make” including Barry Levinson (Diner) and Ron Shelton (Bull Durham) to name a few. You can read Bill’s take on what drove the project as well http://tinyurl.com/mg79ju. I have seen only a handful of these films so far but I can tell you that Bill and team accomplished their objective – these are the best sports documentaries I have ever seen. The films all share the following attributes; a great sports story brought on by a cultural tension of the time delivered by incredibly talented director craftsman. The result are outstanding stories that teach about sports and life. The last one I watched, “The Two Escobars” was particularly outstanding. It’s a story about Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord and Andres Escobar the heart and soul of Columbian soccer in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Through the film you are confronted with the question was Pablo Escobar actually good or bad for Colombian society overall and the role his downfall played in the resulting tragedy that befell Andres Escobar. If you like sports, cultural tension and a great story I highly recommend ESPN’s 30 For 30 series. Has anyone else out there seen films from this series and if so what do you think about it?
I’ve seen nearly all the 30 for 3o’s (and have now bought the DVDs to catch them all) and have to agree – they are the best collection of sports docs ever.
HBO has always had an incredible documentary and sports doc collection, but as a set these give them a run for their money.
I enjoyed the Two Escobars particularly as well, but also found myself enjoying some of the more light-hearted episodes, like the Pony Excess. Simmons et al did an amazing job pinning down great stories that weren’t the biggest (though they did a great job with the Bronco chase) but were huge and meaningful stories in the world of sports.
The Ice Cube/Al Davis/Raiders story was another fantastic one – the most amazing part being Zombie Al Davis himself.
Barry – I couldn’t agree more that these documentaries may be ESPN’s finest work. I made sure to TiVo every one of the shows and ordered the box set so that my sons can enjoy them (any maybe recreate them in 20 years!). As an college athlete in the mid/late ’80s, two were especially memorable – The “U” and Pony Excess. I was recruited by Gerry Faust and was a freshman at Duke when Bernie Kosar and the Hurricanes rolled into Durham and I vivdly remember watching Miami beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl for the national title. I followed them throughout my college career and even as I began my sports business career (met Kosar and Jim Kelly during NFL QB Club event in DC and all they talked about was the “U”). The SMU story I lived first hand – my high school football teammate had walked on at SMU and I sent the summer of ‘86 with him summer school in Dallas (since my girlfriend lived there in Highland Park). I met all those players – Reggie Dupard, David Richards, Brad Hummel, etc and that show was dead on! I later moved to Dallas and meet the man behind the money Sherwood Blount on many occasions and Steve Endicott (who was the agent for Larry Johnson (another SMU quandry!) and Michael Irvin of the “U”) after his coaching days ended when Ron Meyer left for the NFL. Jimmie Johnson coming to coach the Cowboys, winning two Super Bowls and telling me over drinks his teams in Miami would have beat half the NFL just brought it full circle!
The “Two Escobars” was another one since I attended the World Cup matches in Dallas and saw the “own goal” Andres scored and the early exited of the favored Columbian side. We all wondered aloud that he might not want to go back home, but not really thinking that it would cost him his life. Senseless and tragic ending that always reminds those of us in sports that sometimes there are those that consider it more than just a “game”.
They great thing about the series is that it will always be refreshed with new stories every 5-10 years that are as compelling as those covered in the original 30 on 30.
Look forward to more to come!
Barry,
I produced one of the films in the 30 for 30 series (“The U”) and I wanted to point out the incredible opportunity that Bill Simmons and the entire ESPN team gave to independent feature documentary makers with the 30 for 30 series.
It was a gutsy move for ESPN to not produce the series in house, but rather put their trust in filmmakers such as Albert Maysles, Dan Klores, Barbara Kopple, Jeff and Michael Zimbalist, and us with the telling of these stories.
Other than HBO, there isn’t another cable network that regularly acquires and actively promotes feature documentaries, let alone commission 30 of them in 18 months. It’s the 30 for 30 series that makes ESPN arguably the biggest supporter of independent filmmakers over the past couple years.
Though my partner Billy Corben and I may be best known for our doc Cocaine Cowboys, the exposure we received from making The U for ESPN continues to pay dividends for our careers. We’re back at work on a new feature doc for ESPN right now.
So thanks Bill, Connor, Keith, John, Walsh, Skipper, Joan and the whole ESPN crew.