What a year, huh?
2024 saw a total solar eclipse across much of North America, and the return of the McRib. A bunch of other stuff probably happened, too.
Most importantly, there was a lot of great sports content on major streaming services this year, perfect for filling in those gaps between games. There’s a lot to wade through, of course, but I’ve been waist-deep in it all year, and I’m prepared to emerge from the muck, hose off, and offer you the Top 10 Sports Programs on Streaming This Year.
Let’s dive right in.
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The Money Game (Prime Video)
One of the biggest stories in sports in the past few years has been the sea change in college athletics around Name, Image & Likeness (NIL) rules–that is, the newfound ability of student-athletes to profit off their exploits while still in college. It’s upended the entire landscape, and forced athletic departments to scramble in learning a whole new way of doing business.
This six-episode documentary miniseries explores these changes through the stories of six student-athletes at LSU–a group that includes household names like gymnast Livvy Dunne, basketball star Angel Reese, and Heisman winner Jayden Daniels, but also less-widely-known figures Flau’jae Johnson, Alia Armstrong, and Trace Young. It’s a smart, focused series that shows just how much college sports has changed in the past five years.
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Game 7 (Prime Video)
There’s nothing in sports as thrilling as a Game 7, the winner-take-all game at the end of a hard-fought playoff series. Tensions are high, championships are on the line, and legends–or goats–can be made in the blink of an eye. This fun six-episode miniseries looks at the phenomenon through the lens of six specific Games Seven: the 2003 ALCS between the Red Sox and Yankees, the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers, the 2006 NBA Western Conference Semifinal between the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs, the 2016 World Series between Cleveland and the Chicago Cubs, the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals between New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks, and the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers.
Each episode is a mini-documentary setting up the context of the game and the series that led up to it with archival footage and commentary. It’s fast-paced and as-it-happens, packaging it as more of a highlight reel than a sober recounting–there’s little what-does-it-all-mean navel-gazing. Instead, it’s a chance to relive these moments as they happened.
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Giannis: The Marvelous Journey (Prime Video)
Single-athlete-focus documentaries are a booming genre these days–every athlete with a PR team worth its salt seems to have convinced a streaming service to air a feature-length version of their life story. The problem is, many of these documentaries fail to rise above what they are–image-burnishing infomercials for the athletes, crafted to tell their story in the most heroic light. Ultimately, even with their successes, most athletes’ stories just aren’t interesting enough to merit the treatment. (Trust me, I’ve watched a lot of these.)
Giannis Antetokounmpo is an exception to this.
His early life wasn’t easy; his parents moved from Nigeria to Greece in search of a better life, leaving their eldest child behind with grandparents. Giannis and three brothers were born in Greece, but were not eligible for Greek citizenship at birth, and the family struggled to make ends meet on the margins of a society often hostile to African immigrants and their descendents. The brothers often sold CDs, sunglasses or other items on the streets of Athens to help the family get by. It’s an improbable start for a future NBA MVP and NBA champion, and one that’s absolutely worthy of the feature-length documentary treatment. Even if you’re not a fan of Giannis, you probably will be after watching this.
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Bronx Zoo ‘90 (Peacock)
The New York Yankees are one of the most successful franchises in all of sports, and for almost all of the past three decades, their floor has been “pretty good”. There was a time when that wasn’t the case, though–the chaotic late-80s/early-90s tenure of owner George Steinbrenner saw the Yankees be not just bad, but messy. In 1990, they were quite bad–finishing in last place in the AL East with a record of 67-95, their most losses since 1912. That disappointment on the field was just the tip of the iceberg, though. The personalities running through the Bronx that year ranged from erratic and arrogant to outright criminal.
This three-part documentary dives deep on a season that nearly tore the Bronx Bombers apart–but also quietly set the foundations for the dynastic success they’d experience just a few years later.
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Mr. McMahon (Netflix)
You don’t have to be a wrestling fan to be at least passingly familiar with Vince McMahon. The longtime head of WWE is an unavoidable figure in popular culture, even if you just know him as the guy from in the “increasingly excited guy” meme format. There’s a good chance, too, that you know that Vince McMahon has often played the role of villain both in the ring and in real life–plagued by questionable business dealings and serious accusations of sexual misconduct.
This six-part documentary miniseries on Netflix doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story–we can’t ignore that Netflix recently signed a massive deal with WWE that might influence their coverage of its longtime public face–but it’s a pretty good primer on one of the premier heels of the sports world.
A deep cast of WWE luminaries show up to help tell the story, but McMahon himself–cagey, coy and conniving–is at the center of the whole thing. He’s undoubtedly here to sell the best version of the story; even the damning revelations feel managed, like a politician trying to get out ahead of a scandal. Despite all that, it’s compelling to see, and hints at the version of the story he doesn’t want to discuss.
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Simone Biles Rising (Netflix)
If I tried to do any rundown on Sports in 2024 that didn’t mention Simone Biles, you would be justified in calling for my jailing. I don’t want to go to jail, but even if I did, I wouldn’t dare leave the GOAT out of the discussion. This four-part documentary–released in two two-episode bursts this year–follows the American gymnast in the wake of her disastrous experience at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and as she prepares for a (hopefully) triumphant return in Paris in 2024.
It’s a candid, unflinching look at the mental health pressures put on top athletes, and a recognition that sometimes it can be overwhelming even for the best of the best of the best.
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Love Undercover (Peacock)
This list is dominated by sports-documentary content, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this delightful dating show that dropped onto Peacock this summer. Every dating show needs a suitably-wacky premise, and this one has a terrific one: its beaus are five international soccer stars, and they’ll be looking for love among a pool of American women who have no idea that the men are actually rich and famous.
It’s fun to realize that someone can be a famous athlete in Europe or Mexico and virtually anonymous in the United States, but it’s even more fun to see these guys vie for dates without the knowledge of their fame available–some of the show’s best moments come from one of the older stars chafing as women flock to his younger, more attractive counterpart.
This is a perfect bridge across genres–it’s sort of sports content, but it’s also immensely appealing to reality-show fans who have no interest in sports at all.
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UNTOLD: Sign Stealer (Netflix)
Netflix has made a lot of waves over the past few years with their UNTOLD series of documentaries, a parallel to ESPN’s long-running 30 For 30 series that crafts standalone episodes about single topics. The success or failure of these episodes rides largely on the substance of their subject, and there was no story wilder in 2023 than that of Connor Stalions.
Any college football fan knows the beats already–Stalions, a University of Michigan football staffer, was found to have broken NCAA rules by attending dozens of opponents’ games in order to record and decode their in-game signals. Also, he might’ve been turned in by a private detective connected to arch-rival Ohio State? Oh, and Michigan won their first national championship of the century the same year this all broke. It’s a roller-coaster of a story, and UNTOLD: Sign Stealer condenses it all into a clean, concise narrative–while also giving us the first straight-from-the-man-himself accounts of how it all went down.
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Charlie Hustle and the Matter of Pete Rose (Max)
No one in the history of Major League Baseball ever collected more hits than Pete Rose. At the same time, arguably no one in the sport’s history had as dramatic a fall from grace as Rose did. He famously accepted a lifetime ban from the game in 1989 under a cloud of suspicion regarding his gambling. This four-part documentary miniseries on Max took a nuanced, balanced look at the long career and sad fall of MLB’s all-time hit leader.
Rose himself participated in the making of the documentary (filmed prior to his death in September of this year), but it isn’t a one-sided affair. He gets to tell his side of the story, but it’s often quickly countered by the differing opinions of others, or by subtle fact-checks. Rose still has many fans, and there are substantial camps willing to argue both for and against his inclusion in baseball’s Hall of Fame. This documentary has something for both sides, and allows the viewer to decide where they stand.
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The Turnaround (Netflix)
The top entry on this year’s list is an improbable one–a modest, quiet, 25-minute long short film on a narrow subject. It’s a deeply endearing piece of filmmaking, though, and a reminder of what sports can mean to us.
The film is made by and stars Jon McCann, a diehard fan of the Philadelphia Phillies. In 2023, McCann’s favorite team signed All-Star shortstop Trea Turner to a massive 11-year, $300M contract, and expectations were sky-high. Unfortunately, Turner struggled out of the gate, flailing at the plate and committing bundles of errors over the first four months of the season. As would be expected, Philadelphia fans–often labeled (somewhat unfairly) as among the harshest fans in sports–booed Turner, loudly and often.
McCann, who shares his own struggles with mental health, chose to look at Turner not as an overpaid, underperforming jersey, but as a fellow human with real emotions, and took a different tack. He organized a standing ovation for Turner, convincing his fellow Philly fans to support the star–and it worked. Turner got hot, finishing the season exceptionally strong, and the Phillies surged to within one game of a National League pennant.
It’s not as big a story in scope as some of the others on this list, and it’s the shortest entry by far, but it’s the purest distillation of the joy and comfort that sports can bring. At the end of a long year, it’s something we could all use.
Scott Hines, publisher of the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter, is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky.
The post The 10 Best Sports Documentaries of 2024: ‘Mr. McMahon,’ ‘Charlie Hustle,’ ‘Simone Biles Rising,’ and More appeared first on Decider.
