Quarterbacks, Netflix
Netflix has stolen a march on the other big streamers on sports programming and it’s starting to hammer it home.
Month by month there are big sport documentary launches, with tennis, golf, cycling, football and Formula One all getting the Netflix treatment.
The eight-part Quarterbacks is the latest. It’s been released ahead of the NFL season which will kick off again in September.
It tells the story of the 22/23 season through the experience of three quarterbacks.
There’s two-time Superbowl champion and superstar Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins who won the NFC North Division Title with Minnesota Vikings and Marcus Mariota who starts his first season with the Atlanta Falcons.
American Football fans will love the close-up access to these stars, particularly Mahomes, but there’s something here for all sports aficionados.
Quarterback is the playmaker position familiar to many other games, but its closest comparison to our main sports is to the outside-half in rugby.
Johnny Sexton is Ireland’s greatest ever quarterback. He calls the game from his viewing position just behind the front line.
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He decides on the play and directs the big lads in front of him to where he wants their muscle.
There are obviously many differences with American Football but the willingness to take a hit is the same.
For the play to be the most effective, Sexton has to release the ball at the very last moment and take the hit from the opposition, probably a 16 or 17 stone backrower.
The NFL’s stars have to have the same willingness to trade pain for success.
“Getting hit is a big part of it,” says Cousins. Then “there’s the fortitude it takes to sign up to it (getting hit) again and again.”
Because he’s mic’d up, we get to hear Cousins wince and groan as he takes serious smashes from linebackers.
He’s undoubtedly operating behind a leaky defensive-line but he never seems to verbalise his upset, other than moaning everytime he’s helped up from the ground by the man who should be blocking for him.
Mahomes, who has already been named MVP at a Superbowl, is on his way to be a great in the game and there’s a fascinating section with his personal coach on how they prepare his body for the inevitable hits.
Trainer Bobby Sroupe calls it the ABC plan.
'A Day' focuses on “tissue rejuvenation”. This looked essentially like radical stretching into all the unusual positions Mahomes may get into as he tries to make a throw.
Mahomes is famed for his extreme athleticism and ability to move out of the pocket of protection and make unusual plays.
'B Day' is a power day. It’s lifting a lot of weights and preparing the body for the confrontation of a combat sport.
'C Day' is about speed and we see Mahomes jerk weights as fast as he can mimicking his throwing arm. He sprints around the gym making acute turns and spins.
His trainer explains that they try to work at a speed faster than the real game so that the Sunday match feels like it’s slow and the mind has time to react.
The detail quarterbacks have to go into is also well explained.
We see Cousins learn his lines, with his wife helping, as if he was an actor reading a script.
Each game has a new set of detailed calls which the quarterback must know, understand and be able to relay to the team in terms of the next move.
Speed, power, athleticism, courage and brain power. The ingredients for sports stardom are similar across all codes.
