If you had a list of which franchises in professional sports would be on the receiving end of a massive ten-part documentary series, you would probably start with historic teams like the Boston Celtics, New York Yankees, or Green Bay Packers. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers would not exactly spring to mind and race to the front of the pack.
And yet, thanks to Amazon Prime Video, it is going to become a reality.
Amazon will be the streaming home of Raise the Flags, which will be the story of the Bucs from their infamous 0-26 start to their two Super Bowls in the 2000s and everything in between.
Of course, there is naturally one question that has to be asked – why in the world is Amazon Prime Video putting together a documentary about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that has won two Super Bowl titles in 50 years? Well, it’s being backed and produced by the Glazer family, owners of the Bucs. According to the team website, Bucs co-owner Ed Glazer commissioned the docuseries..
This incredibly rich and wide-ranging docuseries, presented by Skydance Sports and Prime Video Sports, was commissioned and produced by Buccaneers Co-Owner Ed Glazer and directed by eight-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Trent Cooper, and the result is the most complete account of Buccaneers history ever conceived and realized. Cooper and his production team conducted over 100 interviews with current and former players, coaches, executives, staff, media personalities and more and supported it with archival footage and historical recordings.
“Raise The Flags is a celebration of the people, the perseverance, and the passion that built this franchise over the past 50 seasons,” said Glazer. “We wanted to create an honest and comprehensive look at our journey – from the earliest challenges to the unforgettable championship moments – and to honor everyone who has shaped the Buccaneers franchise into what it is today. This series celebrates that rich history in a way that has never been done before.”
Is there anything that better encapsulates the current state of sports documentaries than a billionaire owner commissioning a streaming company to do a ten-part series on how great and amazing his team’s story is? Nobody outside the most diehard Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan is asking for a series that has as many episodes as The Last Dance on this franchise. And even then, there are probably a decent chunk of Bucs fans that think that it is going to be overkill.
What’s next? A 10-part series on the New Orleans Pelicans? What about the untold story of the Ottawa Senators? The truth is that almost all of these documentaries in the sports world are now glamour projects told from the point of view of the person of interest, creating whatever kind of history that they want to create.
History isn’t being written by just the victors anymore, it’s being written by those with the deepest pockets and the ability to commission multi-part documentaries to serve their own legacies. At least we now know that the Netflix documentary about Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys inspired one person.