The fifth Netflix-produced sports docuseries, “Quarterback,” is an eight-episode, 334-minute mixed-bag marathon that will certainly appeal to fans of the three profiled players and devoted NFL followers but will not likely rope in any new converts and may even turn some viewers completely off.
The series opens with a statement from Hall of Fame inductee, two-time Super Bowl winner, and co-producer Peyton Manning stating that he believes being a quarterback in the NFL is the hardest job in professional athletics. Mr. Manning offers several reasons for his opinion, and although his reasoning is certainly sound, I’m quite sure that many major league baseball catchers and English rugby players would argue otherwise.
The premise is simple and closely resembles “Full Swing,” the similarly executed Netflix golf docuseries released this past February.
For “Quarterback,” three NFL starting quarterbacks—Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, and Marcus Mariota of the Atlanta Falcons—were audio and video recorded for the 2022–23 season.
Family Time
The series hits one of its few peaks with the frequent cuts to the men’s private lives and quality time spent with their wives and children. All three married women whom they met while in their teens, and watching them interact in both good times and bad is heartwarmingly refreshing.As he was a member and game MVP of two of the four most recent Super Bowl winning teams, the participation of Mr. Mahomes was something of a no-brainer, but for reasons explained below, he should not have been included in the series.
Mr. Cousins, a well-liked and respected man and the most recent recipient of the humanitarian Bart Starr Award, turned out to be the best choice of the lot. Mr. Cousins began his career with the Washington Redskins and was selected in the 2012 draft, mostly as an insurance policy in case something went wrong with higher choice Robert Griffin III.
As it turned out, the Redskins were right about Mr. Griffin, who is also popularly known as RGIII. He incurred numerous injuries in fast order, and Mr. Cousins took his place and exceeded all expectations. His performance peak coincided with the end of his contract, and in 2018 he signed a then record three-year $84-million deal with the Vikings.
The Jinx
In 2014, Marcus Mariota became the first Hawaii-born recipient of the NCAA Heisman Trophy. For most Heisman-winning players, their pro careers mirror their college successes, but for a few (such as Johnny Manziel, Tim Tebow, and RGIII), the Heisman becomes something of a jinx, and such is the case for Mr. Mariota.Over the past five years, Mr. Mariota has been employed by four different NFL teams and is the only player in this series to have a lifetime losing record as a starting quarterback. Twice in his career, he quit playing for teams before the seasons’ end because he was benched, only to sign with other teams to effectively become a second-string backup.
Word Salads
Quarterbacks are often called on by their coaches to help design plays, some that come with inordinately fussy choreography and names that make the word salads of Kamala Harris sound downright Shakespearean. Here are some examples: “speed right, Joe hokey, 2-rub low, x-back” and “rib it fun, cheddar can, brawl and cheddar, H-bronze on the turbo.”
If this was a movie, most of it would be rated “PG,” yet the producer’s harebrained decision to include over 100 F-bombs (and variations thereof, mostly delivered by Mr. Mahomes) push it into hard “R” territory, hence the “TV-MA” rating. Yes, this is how players talk when they’re on the field and sidelines, so from an authenticity perspective it works. However, by going this route, the series effectively obliterates the potentially huge family demographic.
The co-producers are NFL Films, Mr. Manning’s Omaha Productions, and 2PM Productions which is owned by Mr. Mahomes. As far as the latter is concerned, appearing in a docuseries that one is also producing presents, if not a conflict of interest, a heavy-duty pro-personal bias.
If Netflix decides to do another one of these, it needs to ensure that none of the players or producers turns out to be the same guy.
