Divine Providence Documentary Jeff Goodman Screen grab: FS1
College BasketballYouTubeBy Ben Axelrod on

Some unexpected sports media drama emerged on Monday as the creator of a documentary about Providence basketball revealed alleged legal threats he had received from longtime college basketball insider Jeff Goodman.

Now the controversy has taken another twist, with YouTube removing the fan-created documentary, Divine Providence, at the center of it.

“After accumulating around 70k views, Divine Providence has been taken down from Youtube,” the X (formerly Twitter) user @BlueDemonDegen posted on Tuesday morning, along with a clip of professional bowler Pete Weber saying, “I appreciate all the fans I have. Hate me or love me, you watched. That’s all you could do.”

For the uninitiated, BlueDemonDegen — who has chosen to remain anonymous — operated a social media and YouTube channel called “Big East Films.” The project set out to produce documentaries on each of the conference’s 11 men’s basketball programs, with the first one, Divine Providence, focusing on Ed Cooley’s rise at the school and eventual departure for rival Georgetown.

On Monday, the Big East Films X account was suspended due to copyright issues, prompting BlueDemonDegen to publish a series of posts revealing himself as its creator and some of the fallout he has faced following the publishing of Divine Providence last week. You can read the entirety of the thread starting here.

Included in the thread was a series of screenshots showing Goodman sending BlueDemonDegen messages implying that he’ll face legal action as the result of the do cumentary. While it would make sense for Cooley to be upset with the documentary, it’s unclear what about it irked Goodman to the point that he wouldsay things like, “How do you look in orange?” and “In the offseason, when I have time, I will track down who you are” to its creator.

The screenshots of Goodman’s alleged direct messages caught the attention of Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who used the opportunity to promote the documentary.

After BlueDemonDegen posted that the video had been removed from YouTube — likely due to copyright issues — Portnoy encouraged him to upload it to the anti-cancel culture video platform Rumble, which announced a new partnership with Barstool Sports last week.

Even at this point, there are still several unanswered questions regarding this situation, including but not limited to:

  1. What exactly is Goodman apparently so upset about?
  2. Will Cooley — who is compared to Adolf Hitler and accused of having extramarital affairs in the documentary — pursue legal action?
  3. How does the the participation of Goodman’s Field of 68 colleague, John Fanta, in the documentary factor into all of this?

In the short-term, Divine Providence is already being uploaded to alternative platforms. And based on one of his most recent social media posts, it doesn’t appear that any of this has dissuaded BlueDemonDegen from moving forward with the rest of his project.

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.

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