ESPN recently concluded its airing of The Last Dance, its multi-part documentary on Michael Jordan and his time with the Chicago Bulls from director Jason Hehir, and now it’s preparing a similar series (which is to say that it’s basically the exact same thing) about another sports icon who is extremely well-loved in one specific region of the country but is considered somewhat overrated everywhere else. This comes from Deadline, which says production company Religion Of Sports and Tom Brady’s 199 Productions are working with ESPN on Man In The Arena, a nine-part documentary series about—you’re not going to believe this—Tom Brady.
In other words four days or so after The Last Dance, Tom Brady literally threw a slightly deflated football through a window at ESPN headquarters and yelled “Do one about me now!” (we don’t know if this literally happened, but we can pretend that it happened). Also, for the record, Jordan was involved in the making of The Last Dance, but at least he made his thing first.
Deadline says Man In The Arena will be based around Brady’s “first-hand account of the most iconic moments of his NFL career,” plus “smaller, seemingly insignificant instances that became pivotal events.” (Which feels like a weird note.) In a statement, Brady said the the series will define “the key moments and challenges that were seemingly insurmountable, but through hard work and perseverance, became career-defining triumphs, in both victory and defeat”—again, since it seems weirdly unclear, he’s talking about his own life here.
Man In The Arena will premiere next year on ESPN, at which point everyone will be overcome with nostalgia for the years when Tom Brady was still playing football, like 2000-????. Those were good times, right? Well, 2020 has been a pile of shit, and 2016 wasn’t great, but maybe the upcoming Tampa Bay years will be okay? The doc will barely be able to cover them, since it comes out in 2021, but maybe it’ll end with Brady curing the coronavirus or something. That would give him a leg up on Jordan.