It’s time to welcome sports docuseries to the new fad club which is currently being occupied by TikTok and Zoom calls. Last month it was announced that ESPN is going to be producing a documentary series called “The Man in the Arena: Tom Brady”. This is a clear attempt to cash in on the success of the Last Dance which unless you’ve been quarantined without Wi-Fi (and if that’s the case I’m truly sorry), probably know was a ten episode docuseries focused on Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls dynasty. Given the positive reception that a documentary featuring the greatest basketball player of all time received, conventional wisdom would say a multi-part documentary series on the greatest football player of all time could be just as good. Conventional wisdom also led many to believe The Judge (2014) was going to be a good movie considering its star loaded cast of Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, and Billy Bob Thornton. Similar to The Judge the Brady documentary will be a massive disappointment. Here’s why:
- The Focus – A great documentary about Tom Brady should actually not be about Tom Brady. The focus needs to be on the New England Patriots as a whole instead of just the quarterback. Obviously Brady is the most important individual to the Patriots’ two decade long dynasty, but he’s hardly the only character from that run. The Last Dance was a 90s Chicago Bulls documentary as much as it was a Michael Jordan documentary. Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson, and Jerry Reinsdorf were all frequently interviewed. If the focus is on the Patriots first and Brady second, this documentary can show a more holistic view of New England’s dominance in the 21st century as opposed to just from Brady’s vantage point. Now, this documentary may still be able to show a holistic view by interviewing all of the important individuals that played a part in New England’s success over the years, but that seems doubtful after Gotham Chopra who is a producer on the upcoming documentary (also the director of the infomercial disguised as a documentary Tom vs Time which already signals a red flag) said to SI that Bill Belichick is “on the list” regarding potential interviews. WHAT DO YOU MEAN ON THE LIST?!?!?! This isn’t freaking 1 OAK!!!!!! This project shouldn’t even happen without Belichick being 100% confirmed. He’s literally the most important interview you could get other than Brady. How can you proceed with doing a documentary on Tom Brady without having Bill Belichick committed? That’s like doing an SNL documentary without Lorne Michaels, or a Harry Potter documentary without J.K. Rowling, a U2 documentary without Bono, or a Fab Five documentary without Chris Weber (well….). Belichick may very well agree to do the doc, and the problem of not having him could be avoided. However, the fact that he’s not even confirmed to be interviewed shows that this documentary seems to be more concerned with trying to shape a certain narrative through Brady’s eyes as opposed to an in-depth look at the 21st century New England Patriots. Without having others who may offer information that can differ from how Brady wants to present something, you run an incredible risk of bias in the doc which is how we arrive at documentaries disguised as infomercials.
- The Structure – In the 20 years Brady played in New England, the team had a 6-3 Super Bowl record. According to SI’s Albert Breer who interviewed Gotham Chopra, “Each of the nine episodes will focus on one of the Patriots’ Super Bowl seasons.”
Does anyone else see this as an awful idea? By pigeonholing yourself to less than half of Brady’s seasons in the NFL, it seems as if the amount of information and stories from Brady’s legendary career that can be put into this doc are being limited. Yes, they can include stuff from seasons that weren’t Super Bowl seasons, but there probably won’t be enough time for many cases of that. There will probably be limited room for backstories as well. Also, by making each episode primarily focused on a Super Bowl season, I’m assuming a large chunk of each episode will be dissecting the Super Bowls and the playoff games before them. There are already game recaps with commentary from players and coaches. If I wanted to know more about the stories of those games, I could watch one of those or go to Pro-Football-Reference. Instead of getting a look behind the curtain on Brady’s run with the Patriots it’s looking more like we’re getting recaps on games we’ve already watched…..
- The Oversaturation – There’s already been a decent amount of Tom Brady documentaries. There was the Brady 6 which was about Brady’s fall to the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL draft. There was Tom vs Time which certainly wasn’t a real documentary, and calling it a TB12 infomercial would be offensive to OxiClean and Snuggies. There needs to be quality not quantity. A single Tom Brady/Patriots tell-all is much more appealing than multiple documentaries about different parts of the dynasty. It makes the documentaries feel devalued with there being so many of them. In this case, less is more, but maybe that’s a difficult thing to tell a guy who’s about to enter his 21st season in the league at the age of 43.
- The Timing – There needs to be a certain amount of distance from Brady’s playing career before making a documentary about his legacy and accomplishments for the doc to have weight. It’s fairly obvious that part of the reason why Jordan agreed to do The Last Dance after years of allegedly refusing to do it is because many members of the media and general public began to stupidly claim that LeBron James is the greatest basketball player ever. The Golden State Warriors also broke his ’96 Bulls’ team record for the most wins in a regular season in 2016. Jordan was becoming less and less appreciated. Almost forgotten. He was able to use The Last Dance to show the morons who forgot or just wanted to move on to the next star that he’s still Michael Jeffery Jordan the best basketball player to ever live. In Brady’s case, he’s literally still playing in the league. His tenure with the Patriots is still fresh in everyone’s head. Everyone still remembers the three rings in four years, the 16-0 season, 28-3, and plenty of other iconic moments which caused jealousy amongst fans of other teams that led to the Patriots becoming the most despised sports franchise of the 21st With Brady being as relevant as ever, there’s no point to doing the documentary now. It would make sense to release a documentary highlighting Brady’s legacy if and when Trevor Lawrence starts to get close to winning six rings, or if someone finishes off a perfect season with a Super Bowl, or if Pat Mahomes starts getting referred to as the GOAT. Once things like that start to occur Brady can take a page from the Jordan playbook and remind everyone who the best ever is with a documentary.
Also, when there’s no distance, people are reluctant to share all the information. The truth starts to come out when people are no longer worried about burning bridges. It took 31 years to figure out who Deep Throat was. If we want to know the answers to some of the mysteries surrounding the Pats dynasty such as did Brady deflate the balls, why was Malcolm Butler benched, did Brady play a part in getting Jimmy Garoppolo traded, and all the drama that led to the eventual Brady – Belichick split, time needs to pass. The truth on those topics might not be told with how recent they all still are. We need more time to elapse before a truly great Brady/Patriots documentary can be made.