I'm a little busy today, so no time for a full-on review of tonight's "30 for 30" documentary on the rise and fall of the USFL. Instead, a few quick points: 1)I'm with Fienberg in that this one probably tried to tell too many parts of the story, rather than focusing on one small part of a larger story (the trade with Gretzky's career, the marching band with the Colts move); 2)Even so, it's still a fun story, and particularly delicious to see Trump exposed like that, after him largely getting a media free ride since "The Apprentice" debuted; 3)The Sports Guy crosses in front of the camera for a few talking head segments, and it felt like half the USFL's players, announcers and fans wound up working for ESPN at some point (which in turn made "Small Potatoes" feel more like a traditional ESPN documentary than the other "30 for 30" films); 4)That Jim McVay had to explain how famous Burt Reynolds used to be made me feel really old. What did everybody else think?
This was my favorite doc to date. Maybe because I didn't know anything about the USFL, but love football, so all the old footage and players was great. Maybe they tried to do too much, but the flow of the story was great.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other person, and I thought this was really good. I only knew that people like Young, Kelly, White and Walker played in it and that it sued the NFL. 30 for 30 has delivered so far. I'm looking forward to the Ali- Holmes one next week
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I had zero knowledge of the USFL, either. It was cool seeing footage of Steve Young, Herschel Walker, etc., tear it up in that league. And eventually seeing Donald Trump getting torn down by everyone on camera, especially Keith Jackson for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI turned 20 in 1985, so I kind of grew up in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteI spent 1985 in St Petersburg Florida and saw the Bandits play the Stars(saw Kelvin Bryant play).
Brings back alot of memories.
Didn't realize all that was going on with the league and why it folded. This brings alot to knowing who, how and why
I was a Stars fan. Loved Kelvin Bryant. I'm glad this was comprehensive, and it was a hoot.
ReplyDeleteThe best so far. I was a Michigan Panther fan and went to a half dozen games or so. I remember a 36-30 Houston Gamblers (what a great name for a football team) OT win over the Panthers at the Silverdome. I'd love to see a 2 hour version of this doc.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite doc so far, mostly to see iconic guys like Jim Kelly and Herschel Walker happily reminiscing on their USFL days. This documentary was fun and had a clear villain, which is always fun (especially if it's Trump!)
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing the Generals vs Tampa Bay Bandits (with "The Head Ball Coach", Steve Spurrier)- I think it was in 1983. Had the USFL stayed with only 12 teams, moved or consolidated some of the less successful franchises, stayed with a spring schedule, and above all....gotten Trump out of the league...they would have had a decent chance of survival.
ReplyDeleteIt was refreshing for somebody FINALLY to lay it on the line about The Donald and call him the pompous, self absorbed ass that he is (without actually saying the words).
I really don't think Charlie Steiner nor Keith Jackson will be getting a comp at Trump Towers anytime in the near future.
Love the series...kudos to ESPN and everyone involved.
As others have said, this one was my favorite of the three, maybe because I knew next-to-nothing about the USFL. Critically, I could agree with you Alan, that this may not have been as strong as the last film.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the guard (or whoever) from the Tampa Bay Bandits who cried on the field, probably lost his job when the USFL folded, and then called the league "better than cool... it was awesome" to end the doc provoked a bigger reaction from me than the Colts marching band (with all due respect to those men and Baltimore fans).
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI recall the USFL pretty well from my days as a sports-obsessed 13-year-old when they started- and think this was the best of the 3 shows so far- but think the Albert Maysles Ali-Holmes documentary next week looms over the other shows as the "Seinfeld" reunion episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" have done so over the regular ones so far this season
ReplyDeleteThis was the best of the series. Tollin's first-person presence made the film personal but without being maudlin, which is a realt hazard in sports docs-- how many times did we hear that the Oilers and the Colts were like a religion to their regions? Nobody's arguing that about the USFL, fo sho.
ReplyDeleteThe best part of the doc was the reminder that every sports league starts out with a heavy dose of huckster. It's tough to remember that with the NFL now having the GDP of a First World country.
I enjoyed this one, not as much as the Gretzky one, but more than the Colts one. Trump is a fool.
ReplyDeleteAlso, anyone else weirded out to see Bill Simmons on screen. That guy has a face (and neck) for print. Also, my 6 year old has thicker arms than he does. His appearance kind of took me out of the doc. I hope they don't do that again.
I'm with Alan on this one. I have zero interest in football generally, but remember my home town's USFL team, and wanted to find out more about the league.
ReplyDeleteI think the main issue I that Tollin just isn't much of a filmmaker. The whole thing played like an extended highlight reel with class reunion talking heads intercut. And it never really tried to answer it's eponymous question. At the end, it reafirmed my preheld belief that Trump is an a-hole, but if the doc was supposes to be an indictment against him, it failed to prove it's case. It wasn't clear that the league could have continued absent Trump's influence (overexpansion was brought up and dropped just as quickly; low attendence was just waved off). And the antitrust suit was dropped like a bomb in the middle of the film with no warning and only the most cursory explanation of what te claims were.
In the end, I guess everybody who particated in the USFL really liked it. But that's about all I learned.
Really enjoyed it while I was watching, great to see all that footage, but ultimately I ended up with a lot of the same questions as TL. What killed this league? It couldn't have REALLY been Trump's crusade to get the league into the fall, because they never even got to play that first fall season and prove all the naysayers right. And it couldn't have REALLY been the lawsuit, because it seemed the owners were banking on that to finance another season. If the lawsuit hadn't existed, they'd have folded anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhat it seemed to be was the fact that the league wasn't financially viable to begin with. Unacceptable TV ratings and unacceptable attendance. There's a good chance Trump's plan makes that even worse, but that fall '86 season never played out, so we can't say that's the reason it died.
The best part of the doc was the reminder that every sports league starts out with a heavy dose of huckster. It's tough to remember that with the NFL now having the GDP of a First World country.
ReplyDeleteOne unintended effect of the doc was to make realize that it is essentially impossible to start a new sports league now. A precondition to any sports league is, obviously, fans. But a precondition to having fans is a way to make fans, which doesn't seem possible without giving people a way to connect to the teams/sport and to make the part of a larger community. Very few people just decide one day that they are going to be a Yankees fan or a Steelers fan; you become a fan because your dad is, or your friends are, or sometimes because you want to feel like part of a longer tradition.
But it takes years to get these sort of network effects in place -- generations of fandom being passed down through families and other relationships. The NFL, MBL, and NBA had the advantage of being able to build these fan networks at a time when (a) they could pay their labor dirt, (b) there were limited entertainment options, and (c) there wasn't already competition from an established league.
I guess, at bottom, that the USFL could last 3 games, let alone 3 years, is pretty amazing.
I was at the '83 Generals home debut, too, where the Ball Coach's Bandits destroyed Herschel, et al.
ReplyDeleteWhile casting Trump as the villain is fun and commercial, it seems that all he did was speed up the collapse that became inevitable when the league overexpanded and brought in undercapitalized owners.
Owners who are losing their shirt are going to be very inclined to listen to a super-rich guy who claims to know the solution to their problems.
I doubt his USFL partners ever believed that Trump was really interesting in building a viable NFL alternative. He was using everyone involved, because it was his only chance to get into the NFL.
But the other owners' desperation for money and attention led them to accept that devil's bargain.
While not as good, it reminded me a lot of "Once in a Lifetime," which documented the Cosmos of the '70s. In that one, Giorgio Chinaglia was the heavy, but he was much more appealing than Trump because he was totally aware of his role.
An interesting story. The USFL was basically the last gasp of the great era of pro sports expansion that began in the '60s, and while a lot of traditionalists don't like that type of disruption, new leagues can provide an opportunity for enterprising businessmen, and they always seem to spawn colorful stories (though you wouldn't know it from that lifeless AFL documentary that just ran on Showtime).
ReplyDeleteI don't live in the New York area, so the USFL was the first time I had ever heard of Donald Trump. Given his track record elsewhere, it's no surprise the league could not survive his involvement.
Word verification word: Wantism. I am guilty of this every Christmas.
"It's an annuity! It's an annuity!"
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if these will be released on DVD? I know they are streaming on the web right now but I'm hoping for DVD release. I'm not sure if an email to Bill Simmons will help?
ReplyDeleteIn addition to a potential DVD release, are there any plans for those DVDs to potentially have expanded versions? I know that Simmons has said on multiple podcasts that the hardest part for some of them is cutting them down to fit the hour long format. So expanded DVD versions sound like a good idea, right?
ReplyDelete"Small potatoes" that is a quintessential Donald line. And of course, The Donald would not be associated ith nothing less than the Majors. Of course, we now know Trump wouldn't have been associated with anything without his father's name, other peoples' money, and the notoriety from his USFL play.
ReplyDeleteWith some chagrin, I recall that I rooted him on, for at the time, the NFL was being coy and not at all interested in expansion. So I was all for the antitrust suit. Of course, the NFL soon changed their tune on expansion (after the legal problems were behind them), once they saw how some of the USFL cities starved for Pro Football supported their teams.
Puff
I just want to add to the crowd of people who thought this was the best one of the bunch so far. I'm 26 now so have no memory of the USFL. Though I do think Tollin may have tried to paint it a little too black and white (though sometimes things really are that way) this was definitely the most entertaining of the three.
ReplyDeleteWhat funny about this story is that the duration of the USFL was only three years, yet the one hour was not enough to cover what really went down. I agree with you, they should have focused on Trump and how he ruined the league. But part of the doc was on the startup of the USFL, the players who made it work, and I think they could have easily exposed Trump even more.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know much about the USFL until the doc, and it was a great piece to provide perspective on the league. All in all, the 30 for 30 series is looking really good, and people are really enjoying it.
p.s. heard the podcast with you and the sports guy... good stuff!
agree with most that this was the best of the docs in this series this fall...I feel like I learned the most and enjoyed it the most
ReplyDeletewas a young Stars fan myself...they stood in stark contrast to the Eagles of the mid-80s who were fairly hapless...I was 7-8 years old when the Stars won their championship and I just fell in love with that team