Sports Documentaries We'd Love to See on Netflix
Netflix is a streaming service that was built to provide people with great content. That approach has given sports fans a chance to educate themselves on topics they'd normally gloss over thanks to a host of fascinating documentaries.
Keeping that vibe rolling, we thought it'd be cool to discuss a bunch of other interesting ideas that would make for great Netflix documentaries.
As a basis for this article, none of these topics have actually been turned into flicks. We've harvested ideas that are made up of impressive storylines that have consumed various parts of the sports universe over the years.
Picking 10 wasn't easy, but after digging through the proverbial crates, we settled on the following.
The Hunt for Peyton Manning
1 of 10
A cordial divorce between Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in 2012 signified a true changing of the guard. Manning was allowed to move on, while the Colts shifted the franchise over to the eventual No. 1 pick that year, Andrew Luck.
An interesting story to bring to streaming services like Netflix would be what went down after Manning left Indianapolis. The hunt for Manning was a fascinating time to be alive, and Andrew Brandt of Sports Illustrated went into great detail explaining how this pursuit affected several NFL franchises.
Turning his whirlwind free agency into a documentary would be great. Digging up details about each team's pitch and how those respective franchises changed because of Manning's decision to sign with the Broncos is something that really should happen in the near future.
Grantland's Demise
2 of 10
Journalistic juggernaut Grantland ceased operations in 2015 only a few months after Bill Simmons and ESPN had a falling-out, as Richard Sandomir of the New York Times highlighted.
As the pet project of Simmons, Grantland was put in a difficult spot after his departure. Despite a sad ending, at its peak, the site was always a hotbed for fascinating profiles, adventurous tales in journalism and wonderful statistic-driven commentaries.
When ESPN finally pulled the plug, Simmons came out and shouldered some of the blame, per Tom Kludt of CNNMoney.
"I always felt, look, just worry about the words, the people are going to come, worry about the quality," Simmons said. "The staff can back me up, I never looked at the pageviews stuff, like I never cared about that."
Creating a movie that explains the inner workings of the site, the politics behind it and how this cultural magnet was eventually sent to the electric chair seems like something all sports fans would appreciate.
Deflategate
3 of 10
Look, we all know the New England Patriots' Deflategate scandal was a ridiculous storyline that essentially consumed the airwaves dating back to last year's NFL playoffs.
But in order to properly shed light on this confusing time, we need a proper documentary. We can absorb the whole Deflategate situation thanks to ESPN.com's timeline of events. Mixed up in those words is a situation littered with hypocrisy and drama.
Let's put this whole thing behind us and give people a chance to find out what really went down courtesy of a visual representation.
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Tennis and Its Match-Fixing Problem
4 of 10
Does professional tennis have a match-fixing problem on its hands? If you go by BBC and BuzzFeed's investigative reporting by Heidi Blake and John Templon, the answer is yes.
"Over the last decade, 16 players who have ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) over suspicions they have thrown matches," Simon Cox of BBC wrote.
Lodged between other shocking claims, this topic would translate well if pushed over to the silver screen.
Simply put, breaking down catastrophic issues that plague the tennis world would allow people to consume the information in more of a mainstream approach. It could also have a shattering effect on this ultra-competitive money-making machine.
The John Calipari Story
5 of 10
Like it or not, Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball head coach John Calipari has changed college basketball with his masterful recruiting and quick team-building ways.
Nancy Armour of USA Today brought up how Coach Cal has been constantly thrashed over the years for various reasons.
"They see Kentucky as a pit stop on the way to the NBA and overlook the fact that the revolving door is spinning just as fast at places like Kansas and Duke," Armour wrote.
A film revisiting Coach Cal's history in college basketball would travel beyond the boundaries of mesmerizing. He has recruited future one-and-done NBA stars, won a national title and has enough star power to last a lifetime—including a friendship with music superstar Drake.
What else do you need in order to spice up that recipe? A story focusing on the polarizing career of Calipari would be compelling on all fronts.
Daily Fantasy Sports vs. the World
6 of 10
Daily fantasy sports have been a hot button as of late because of ongoing legal battles in various states. The issue of whether or not it's gambling has rocked an industry that has soared in popularity.
Darren Heitner of Forbes discussed that explosion in popularity: "Even though the industry is less than five years old, market leaders FanDuel and DraftKings are expected to pay out over a billion dollars each in prizes to fantasy-obsessed players this year while spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising to keep building the market."
This huge financial undertaking has caught the attention of lawmakers. According to a report by the New York Times' Walt Bogdanich, Joe Drape and Jacqueline Williams, New York's attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, decided to ban daily fantasy sports in his state.
With controversy circling around, exploring this issue at greater detail would open people's eyes to the industry and let them decide what is what when it comes to fantasy sports.
College Football Playoff
7 of 10
Replacing the Bowl Championship Series in college football wasn't an easy thing to accomplish. Thankfully in 2013, the mighty BCS fell by way of the College Football Playoff.
Designed to give the top four teams in the nation a shot to claim gold, this idea was something fans of the sport deserved. It was long overdue.
College football wouldn't install the new system until the 2014 season, but after two years of witnessing the CFP, it's much better than the convoluted, computer-laden machine that was the BCS.
Framing out a documentary explaining why the BCS was flawed and how this new way of doing things finally got put into motion is interesting on all levels. Bringing the backstage story into the public eye would be a fun way to spend an hour or two.
The NBA on NBC
8 of 10
Professional basketball has always played a big role in sports television, and the NBA on NBC was one of the biggest spectacles of the 1990s.
Broadcast on a weekly basis, this national presentation of hoops went down during the thick of the Michael Jordan era. Packed with probably the greatest sports theme song of all time, the NBA on NBC still brings up memories of nostalgia to this day.
Where a documentary comes into play is how the ratings tanked and basketball underwent a changing of the guard during the NBA on NBC's run. Per an article by Bill Carter—who was writing for the New York Times back then—the NBA suffered a ratings meltdown after Jordan left the Chicago Bulls in '98.
That drop in ratings signaled the end for NBC's coverage of the NBA—the network would cease its broadcast in 2002. Following the show's rise and fall is a clever way to present how basketball changed post-Jordan and the Bulls.
Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao
9 of 10
The buildup to possibly boxing's last great superfight—Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao—was years in the making.
It was Bleacher Report's Kevin McRae who did the right thing by crafting a detailed and expansive timeline of how the biggest clash in recent history actually came to be. After constant bickering, a back-and-forth exchange over drug testing and other factors, the fans finally got what they were clamoring for.
The year was 2015, and the date was May 2. Two of this generation's top prizefighters finally got into the ring and settled their differences. In the end, Mayweather would come out on top, winning a unanimous decision, per BoxRec.com.
What's crazy is that the fight itself isn't the main draw here. Boxing can be a fickle and cloudy business. So if a documentary were ever produced, it would be wonderful to see what really went down behind closed doors in order to bring this megafight to the people.
The NFL's Return to Los Angeles
10 of 10
Professional football left the great city of Los Angeles in 1995. That's when the Rams and Raiders departed for St. Louis and Oakland, respectively.
The good news is that this complicated story of the NFL in Los Angeles didn't end there. As time's passed, the league has always flirted with the idea of bringing pigskin back to this sprawling urban landscape.
In 2016, those dreams became a reality, per ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Nathan Fenno and Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times explained how the Rams—among other teams—could finally return to the city. This whole situation was complex. It involved spurning a fanbase in St. Louis, finding a stadium and so much more.
Now that the Rams have officially returned to California, a documentary should be produced to solidify the history of football in Los Angeles and, more importantly, the future of it.
All stats and information provided by Sports-Reference.com unless noted otherwise.
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