If you’re not a sports fan, you’ve probably missed ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, a series of 30 sports documentaries celebrating the 30th anniversary of ESPN’s existence. Missing these films, though, is a mistake, sports fan or not. They are uniformly insightful and profoundly moving. Sports is often just the framework for stories about real people struggling with their real lives. Editions to date have included subjects like a Canadian town mourning the loss of Wayne Gretzky to California, the racially charged trial of a high-school-aged Allen Iverson, and most recently, a film about Ricky Williams, a football player who, apparently, retired from football to be free to smoke marijuana.
Of course, Williams is revealed to be multifaceted, and in fact, is a fascinating and tragic figure. Here’s a teaser quote, from last night’s Run Ricky Run:
Early on in his identity formation, it became tightly linked to achievement, to what he was supposed to be, instead of the kind of more rooted identity formation that comes from…sweet acceptance. And Ricky longed for that.
POW! The law killed Ricky Williams’ football career, and now we might say, since Ricky is back in the game, largely due to a wife who provided that “sweet acceptance,” that the Gospel resurrected it.
A complete list of the “30 for 30” films can be found HERE.
Being a Texas Longhorn fan, I've always rooted for Ricky. Thanks for the quote and the tip on the documentaries. We'll check them out. They seem right up our alley! -Emily
Thanks Nick. Are any of these available on Netflix? That's about the only way I watch TV and movies — Netflix or the movie theater.
Also, I followed the link you gave and was unable to find a complete list of all 30. It took me to a web site that did have a tab that said "ALL 30 FOR 30 FILMS" but when I clicked on it it just gave a schedule for when 14 of them were playing on ESPN. Do you know a way to see all 30?
It looks like all these documentaries were commission specifically by ESPN in the last year or two — is that right?
Did the Gospel save Ricky? Or did Buddhism?
Is Ricky Williams a Buddhist?
Stamp – You can pre-order them on DVD, I think, but they're just being aired on TV now. Yeah, they're all newly commissioned by ESPN.
Matt – I don't know anything about whether or not Ricky Williams is "saved." I think that grace saved his career.
Liza – Yup. Buddhist.
Nick – Grace saved his career…fair enough, but then what? I'm fine with these examples when we're talking about movies and novels, but this is a real person who has not been touched by the Gospel, and the whole thing is still – forgive me for showing my Baptist roots – lost. Some notion of common grace may have helped revive his career, but let's pray the story doesn't end there.