In 2020, ESPN assembled a superteam to produce a documentary that would look at race in the NFL. Directed by Spike Lee and produced by Jemele Hill, the series would look at the rise and fall of Colin Kaepernick as a star quarterback and its impact on the sports world.
Now, Matthew Belloni of Puck is reporting that the series — titled Da Saga of Colin Kaepernick — is close to finished but won’t air on ESPN for at least a year. In the meantime, Belloni reports ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro has okayed Lee, Kaepernick, and Hill to shop it to other media companies if they want an expedited release.
Beyond the issue with the release date Belloni is hearing that Kaepernick and Lee disagreed at times over how wide the scope of the series should be beyond Kaepernick’s career.
“I’m told it’s full of incendiary critiques of conservative politicians and Donald Trump, who urged the NFL to fire players who kneeled in protest during the national anthem back in 2017,” Belloni wrote at Puck. “Da Saga apparently tackles the history of Black athletes in professional sports, as well as the larger cultural conversation around social justice and police brutality.”
Belloni reports that Lee and Kaepernick have sorted out their differences, and the series is expected to be finished much in a timeframe ahead of when ESPN prefers to air it and thus the possibility of the project moving to another media company.
While Pitaro stood behind the Kaepernick series when it was announced in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, this type of series is one sure to draw a lot of scrutinty and criticism and is one Disney and other companies have had a decreased comfort level with in pursuing over the years. There may be no better symbol of that than Hill leaving the company after multiple suspensions and significant controversy around her online political commentary.
ESPN itself has once aired O.J.: Made In America has since axed Outside the Lines, minimized its E:60 series, have seen Tom Rinalda and Bob Key depart, and has leaned more into entertainment on their daily schedule versus deep reporting topics.
Given that a Lee-Kaepernick show will likely have no shortage of suitors from streaming platforms (including Netflix, where Lee has made multiple projects), this is one to keep an eye on.
[Puck]
