It is the best time of the year! Football season is back!
One thing that every fan seems to want more and more is access to the teams they love. Other than the Cardinals and “the fire in their guts,” this seems to be a positive experience. This year, Netflix (which is a dying service anyway) took a shot in the dark and released a NFL documentary: “Quarterback,” a series following three quarterbacks and three different points in their careers: Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota.
Now, the show came out when I was travelling all day, so I had nothing but time to watch it. I think that the access they gave us as fans was great. I know a lot of people were not fans of the Mariota “subplot”. But as a massive college football fan, Mariota has a special place in my heart, for what he did with the Oregon Ducks. We got to see all these guys go to work and even got to see Mahomes win the Super Bowl. Plus, in this show, it’s not the teams who decide what is shown, it’s the players. We got to see Kirk after he lost to my Giants in the playoffs. We got to see what the process of getting benched is like the day after your daughter is born (which, by the way, was a crazy episode if you missed it). In the case of Mahomes, we saw how easy the game is and his injury. I think my favorite the game against the Raiders, where, after every touchdown, he was screaming at Vegas, it was great.
Now, take everything I said and throw it all away when it comes to “Hard Knocks” on MAX. Look, I know it’s a tradition, but you call the league and the New York Jets decide what is on the screen. On the second episode, we are “treated,” if that’s what you want to call it, to Will McDonald getting his nose pierced just because. The scene takes up like 15 minutes for no reason. I also think seeing the meeting take place every episode is boring. All I learned from the show is that Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett is very odd. I also think that Jets Defensive Coordinator Jeff Ulbrich should be a head coach.
I’ll be honest: I still enjoyed the show. As a Pitt fan, seeing my favorite players from the Panthers last year and Israel Abanikanda, was cool, but they didn’t even have the running backs on the show enough. It was mainly the Aaron Rodgers Show. This may just be my opinion, but I think he’s an unreliable narrator. When it’s a personal game and you turn to a guy and say “Show some respect” and “I don’t even know you,” it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, just always yelling at teammates just seems wrong to me.
Other leagues can learn from this and give more access to the players. I want to see more of the NHL and NBA. But we need to be able to see everything, not only the high points. We want the complete picture.
