By Kevin Peterson | Photo by Patil Khakhamian
With live sports on hold, passionate fans are itching to be able to cheer on their teams again. However, as we turn to Netflix and TV series to fill our time between workouts and online classes, here are some sports-themed series that can replace Sunday Night Football and weekend-morning games.
For soccer fans, Sunderland is likely a club you’ve never supported. As a team that fluctuates between being a mid-level Premier League club and being relegated to the second division, Sunderland isn’t exactly the most glamorous club out there. However, Sunderland ’Til I Die provides a look inside a famous club’s struggle to gain promotion and avoid regulation, following players, managers, and even owners.
Despite being a docuseries on a soccer club, Sunderland ’Til I Die is a must watch for any sports fan. The show focuses more on the supporters, their love for the club, and the way in which the club is run than on the soccer itself. We are all missing the craziness and irrational love for sports that we fans love to show, but Sunderland ’Til I Die delivers all that and more, with Sunderland supporters getting tattoos of the club’s crest, traveling five hours to away games, and spending their whole paycheck on season tickets.
“I really like witnessing the environment of Sunderland’s fans and how much they love their team,” Mason Davis ’23 said. “Their undying support for their team and passion for the game only increases the love and respect I have for the game and what it can do for people.”
The show is available on Netflix. Its two seasons amount to a total of 14 episodes.
Truly legendary players don’t come around often in the sports world, but Michael Jordan is unanimously considered to be one of the best to ever play basketball. The Last Dance is a new collaboration between ESPN Films and Netflix that premiered April 19 on ESPN. The 10-part docuseries follows Michael Jordan’s final season with the Bulls during the 1997-98 season.
Combining footage from the all access crew in ’97 with more recent interviews, The Last Dance provides a look into the five-time championship Bulls team and their issues with things like administration and injury. The show is a captivating watch for basketball die-hards and non-sports fans alike, documenting the undeniable greatness of both Michael Jordan and fellow players such as Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman.
The show was not actually supposed to air until June, but the early release comes as a pleasant surprise to sports fans. Currently, only two out of 10 episodes have been aired. These episodes can be found on ESPN.com; future episodes will air on ESPN on Sundays.