"The Best That Never Was" - Marcus Dupree (1 Viewer)

[Bruce Dickinson]

If you have a Netflix subscription, about 10 or so of the series are available for checkout, including The U, No Crossover, and The Two Escobars. Search "30 for 30" at Netflix to see the titles they have.

 

[OC Zed]

This ranks up there with the Iverson and Pablo Escobar episodes.

The Iverson episode was the worst of the series. Way too long, incredibly redundant and uninteresting after the first 25 minutes.

 

[OC Zed]

I suppose I lean toward Pickles' assessment. I think it's been a pretty standard documentary series with good episodes and not-so-good episodes. Pretty much the equivalent of an episode of POV or Nova. I suppose that's a dramatic increase in quality for the network that gives us PTI and NFL Countdown, but I don't think it's anything revelatory.

You don't think it's revelatory that ESPN gave us something on par with POV or NOVA? I think it's remarkable. The jump from painfully awful to pretty good is something to celebrate.One that was a while back but was possibly my favorite was The Band That Wouldn't Die. It did a great job at capturing the secret to why we love sports so much,and how little it has do with the actual game. Also a huge fan of The U, Run Ricky Run, The Two Escobars, Into the Wind, Four Days in October (a layup, but still worth reliving), and of course the most recent one about Dupree.

Disagree with JTC on the Jimmy the Greek one- I thought that was the worst of the lot.

ETA: Loved the Vlade-Petrovic one as well.

Maybe. I just think that they're pretty standard run-of-the-mill well made documentaries. And some of the topics are kind of repetitive. How many of them are "What If?" stories? The Bias one, the Drazen/Vlade one, the Tim Richmond one, Run Ricky Run, I assume the Dupree one. I think I liked the Drazen/Vlade one best even though I'm not sure it's a great documentary. Having Vlade narrate was a pretty bad shortcut, but it left me wanting Vlade Divac to narrate other things. Like the Tour de France or nature shows.

 

[GoFishTN]

If you have a Netflix subscription, about 10 or so of the series are available for checkout, including The U, No Crossover, and The Two Escobars. Search "30 for 30" at Netflix to see the titles they have.

DVD only. These would be perfect for streaming.

 

[This_Guy]

Please point me in the direction to find more of these type of sports documentaries!

Well, we can compare like for like. Was the Ali/Holmes one better than When We Were Kings? Was Against the Wind better than Murderball?Was Silly Little Game better than Dogtown and ZBoys?Has any been better than Hoop Dreams?Now, these are feature documentaries, but if we include non-sports topics we can find well-made documentaries on TV on all kinds of subjects. On William Kunstler. On the Genetic Code. On Joanie Mitchell. On Gitmo. On the financial crisis. Include HBO, and we have ones on PTSD and Fran Leibovitz. Or on outing gay politicians. HBO has also done ones on the US Women's World Cup team and Bird and Magic (which I thought were kind of mediocre, personally). And that's my only point. That 30 in 30 has been exactly what we might expect it to have been. A documentary series that churns out documentaries that are about as good as similarly well-funded documentaries on PBS or HBO. I'm not sure it's a disappointment, but I don't think it's a triumph.

I think you kind of make my point here. Up to now there really haven't been a ton of solid sports documentaries. Sure there have been a few spectacular features made but as you noted there really aren't any TV quality sports docs out there. No one is really saying they should be releasing these things into the theater. What people are saying is it is really cool to hear about all these different stories that we were either unaware of or didn't know the inside story to and some of them were really well made (and some were not made very well).

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Please point me in the direction to find more of these type of sports documentaries!

Well, we can compare like for like. Was the Ali/Holmes one better than When We Were Kings? Was Against the Wind better than Murderball?Was Silly Little Game better than Dogtown and ZBoys?Has any been better than Hoop Dreams?Now, these are feature documentaries, but if we include non-sports topics we can find well-made documentaries on TV on all kinds of subjects. On William Kunstler. On the Genetic Code. On Joanie Mitchell. On Gitmo. On the financial crisis. Include HBO, and we have ones on PTSD and Fran Leibovitz. Or on outing gay politicians. HBO has also done ones on the US Women's World Cup team and Bird and Magic (which I thought were kind of mediocre, personally). And that's my only point. That 30 in 30 has been exactly what we might expect it to have been. A documentary series that churns out documentaries that are about as good as similarly well-funded documentaries on PBS or HBO. I'm not sure it's a disappointment, but I don't think it's a triumph.

I think you kind of make my point here. Up to now there really haven't been a ton of solid sports documentaries. Sure there have been a few spectacular features made but as you noted there really aren't any TV quality sports docs out there. No one is really saying they should be releasing these things into the theater. What people are saying is it is really cool to hear about all these different stories that we were either unaware of or didn't know the inside story to and some of them were really well made (and some were not made very well).

These documentaries are well done. Stop with the snobbery. Pathetic.

 

[Jefferson the Caregiver]

The Birth of Big Air isn't getting enough love. Awesome movie.

 

[General Tso]

Just saw the E60 special on Dupree. What a sad story. Lots of people to lay blame on - his agent Ken Fairley, the crazy Uncle, Switzer... I hate to say it though, but a lot of it has to fall on Marcus. His undoing was quitting at Oklahoma, and what led to that was his inability to play within a system that showed no favoritism and was tough on the player.

You can tell that to this day it eats up Switzer. The regret on his face while talking about Marcus is pretty stark. To have a world class talent like that fail under you watch, gotta be tough.

Jeez - the saddest part is the ending seeing all his trophies in his his Mom's broken down trailer in Mississippi. Wow. One of the saddest stories I think I've ever seen.

 

[Raider Nation]

Maybe my favorite 30 for 30. All the talent in the world right there.

 

[ghostguy123]

Maybe my favorite 30 for 30. All the talent in the world right there.

He is a classic example of why it doesn't pay to peak like a BOSS so early. Too much crap happens with family, friends, coaches, media................and it re-wires your brain all for the worst.

Maybe not everyone of course, but for most people that would derail a career.

It also helps to have family and friends who both care about you and also know a little bit about life. See Terrell Owens and why he is broke.

 

[General Tso]

Maybe my favorite 30 for 30. All the talent in the world right there.

Raider - you're about my age right? (47)Do you remember the Dupree story as it was going on in the 80's? I was a pretty big sports fan, and I certainly remember the name, but I don't remember it being as big a story. Truth be told I live in the Northeast where college football isn't that big, and the USFL didn't help either. But man it's weird that I feel like I missed this whole story when it actually happened.

 

[General Tso]

And what about his father? I don't believe he was mentioned once in the film and I couldn't find anything about him online. Very strange.

 

[Ray Karpis]

As sad as the story is, it's astonishing to me the comeback he put together after being out 5 years. Unbelievable that he got back to that level after so much time off.

 

[dickey moe]

Please tell me that Raider Nation isn't 47.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

As sad as the story is, it's astonishing to me the comeback he put together after being out 5 years. Unbelievable that he got back to that level after so much time off.

What's also amazing about that is he did it from his garage. He was good enough when he came back with the Rams, having proved that he just quit and got fat again.

The USFL deprived some great players of important NFL seasons. They made a lot of money of course and there were some players discovered there too. But the NO Breakers ruined what was left of Marcus, it's a shame.