Pressure on Netflix sports series to deliver

Netflix is capable of terrific documentaries. We’ve seen it before.

Lately, however, the OG streaming service has lost some mojo, particularly in sports. Netflix’s Untold docuseries is hyped as a place where viewers will see startling revelations or at least new perspectives from the world of sports. It has sometimes succeeded, such as with Crimes & Penalties and The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist .

But last year’s edition—Volume 3—was a clunker. Untold overpromised and underdelivered with Johnny Football and Swamp Kings . The latter was especially disappointing since Netflix managed to make an underwhelming doc on one of the most interesting college football teams of all time: Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators .

So, forgive us for being skeptical when Netflix announced Untold Volume 4 with features on Steve McNair, Connor Stalions, and Hope Solo. The Murder of Air McNair premieres on Aug. 20, with Sign Stealer on Aug. 27 and Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer on Sept. 3. The first two are among the most highly anticipated since this series began in 2021.

The next few weeks will tell us a lot because Netflix has much to prove with these latest sports documentaries. Will they unveil any new insights or regurgitate what we already know?

The college football season starts this weekend. The NFL kicks off in two weeks. It’s the perfect time for maximum interest in Stalions and McNair. If Untold has uncorked some revelatory details in either story, it will receive plenty of attention. Stalions is the most timely because this story is still unfolding. Michigan’s current head coach Sherrone Moore could face a show-cause penalty and suspension for his role in the sign-stealing scandal under Jim Harbaugh’s staff.

Several questions remain unanswered, such as:

• What did Harbaugh know and when did he know it?
• Is there direct evidence of Harbaugh’s involvement?
• How did Stalions steal signs?
• What exact information did Stalions get?
• How much did sign-stealing contribute to Michigan’s success in recent seasons?

If HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel still existed, we could count on some answers. Their dogged reporters might not get everything, but they got as close to the truth on many subjects better than most. The bar for Untold isn’t that high, and its reputation took a hit after last year.

But even if Netflix doesn’t deliver on its promise of telling us “epic tales from the wide (and wild) world of sports,” Untold still has much to gain in terms of credibility. Stalions is a huge get. Nobody else has talked to him since this scandal broke. (We have recently discovered that Stalions has a new job as a defensive coordinator at a Detroit high school made famous by an Eddie Murphy t-shirt .)

The trailer looks promising.

There are also several unanswered questions with McNair. The former Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens quarterback was killed at the age of 36 on July 4, 2009. The Nashville police department ruled it a murder-suicide by 20-year-old girlfriend, Jenny Kazemi. However, some do not believe the official word, and conspiracy theories linger.

Tim Rohan’s excellent podcast “Fall of a Titan” details the homicide investigation and how the police’s reluctance to release some information to the public has contributed to doubts. Did Kazemi pull the trigger, or did someone else?

Untold could add something to the discussion. Has it found a nugget of information that could lead to a re-examination of the case? There are so many gaps, and at the very least, The Murder of Air McNair could be an effective commentary on how this murder investigation was handled and what possible errors or misjudgments the police made.

There’s a real opportunity here for Untold . Sports documentaries are popular because they have a built-in audience and are cheap programming. Even though Johnny Football and Swamp Kings weren’t great, people tuned in. Maybe that’s all that matters for Netflix. But if the quality continues to decline, people will eventually tune out.

It’s time for Untold to return to its promise of telling epic stories.

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