OT: Saving You the Trouble of Watching the Netflix Documentary "Swamp Kings"
“Swamp Kings” the Netflix documentary about the Florida Gators under Urban Meyer, released yesterday. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it turned out to be a total dud. It was basically a four episode Urban Meyer puff piece. It was mostly Urban trying to be nostalgic and relatable.
I was really hoping that the documentary would dig into all the off the field and behind the scenes stuff that was going on in the program over that time period. Instead, they mostly glossed over it and even went as far as to paint the picture that the team had huge discipline issues before Urban arrived, and Urban cleaned it up.
Not necessarily surprising since the person most interviewed in the doc was Urban himself. Followed second by Tim Tebow. The documentary was about the on the field and in the weight room side of the team. Not the off the field illegal activities (41 arrests on the team, Aaron Hernandez murdering people), partying, bar fights, all the players having law enforcement and lawyers they could call to get out of trouble, etc. that Urban allowed to go on while head coach at Florida.
It was about how Urban instilled discipline into the team. How he changed the culture by not letting the team go out and party on Friday and Saturday nights because he would schedule grueling team workouts at midnight. How losing wasn't acceptable but things had to be done the right way. How the team was a disciplined family, committed to excellence on and off the field.
Urban even has the quote of the documentary, “We have a core value on all our teams and that’s if you hit a woman, you’re out.”
Come on Urban...none of us forgot the whole Zach Smith thing happening...
Unlike me, who kept waiting for the documentary to get to the juicy details, save your time and don't watch.
August 23rd, 2023 at 12:52 PM ^
There's no way Urban and Tebow would be a part of something like this if it was going to reveal any of the stuff most people want to see.
You'd have to wait for an ESPN Documentary, but that ain't happening with the SEC deal they made.
August 23rd, 2023 at 12:53 PM ^
Everyone murders
August 23rd, 2023 at 1:17 PM ^
From what I'm hearing, this documentary goes beyond being a dud into the realm of propaganda. Which is a shame for many reasons, one being that there's an important story to be told here about the ways in which sports culture in general enables all kinds of bad stuff. It's also a shame because Urban Meyer is both a brilliant coach and a bad human being, which is another common duality that sports culture needs to reckon with. All in all, this doc seems pretty embarrassing for those involved. Missed opportunity
August 23rd, 2023 at 1:19 PM ^
That sounds kinda like a documentary on King Leopold II and instead of mentioning what he did in the Congo, talking only glowingly about how he built a lot of buildings and public works in Belgium.
August 23rd, 2023 at 2:36 PM ^
Is this Craig Ross' burner account?
August 23rd, 2023 at 1:23 PM ^
I never thought any was interesting about Urban Meyer or this specific team anyways...
August 23rd, 2023 at 1:28 PM ^
Thanks. Other than the Malice at the Palace one, the Untolds have been disappointing.
August 23rd, 2023 at 1:28 PM ^
Already wasn't gonna watch, but this just confirms it. Meyer is great at coaching college talent and breaking down the power spread, but he (and his wife) are just trash people regardless of whether or not he Cayman Nebraska.
August 23rd, 2023 at 1:29 PM ^
Thanks Jmer. I made it about ten minutes in and realized they were relying on truth from the mouth of Urbz. That was enough for me.
August 23rd, 2023 at 1:32 PM ^
ah yes..... saint urban..... patron of the medical condition induced retirement
August 23rd, 2023 at 1:42 PM ^
Yeah it feels like after how spectacularly he flamed out in the NFL he wants one more job. Zero chance any team in the NFL will touch him. Would not be surprised to see him at Texas next season.
August 23rd, 2023 at 1:43 PM ^
I started watching it, bailed out about the time Urban says to the interviewer "This is going to be fucking awesome!"
August 23rd, 2023 at 2:06 PM ^
i saw an article highlighting that tebow said the documentary didnt even scratch the surface.
August 23rd, 2023 at 2:06 PM ^
Yeah, I watched about 15 minutes of it and knew it was going to be pretty one-sided. Sort of annoying that Netflix didn't dig into his really sordid past at Florida, both with his players as well as some claims about his activities off the field as a coach.
August 23rd, 2023 at 2:35 PM ^
Thanks. Wasn't interested already.
August 23rd, 2023 at 2:43 PM ^
Shit, thanks. This does help. My weekend plans just changed.
I did like "Johnny Football," though.
August 23rd, 2023 at 2:55 PM ^
I thank you for this rundown. I was going to watch this tonight and now I'll do something equally useless instead.
August 23rd, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^
That is very disappointing. Thanks for saving me the time.
August 23rd, 2023 at 3:20 PM ^
This is what I expected. Thanks for confirming. I will not watch. Urban Meyer sucks.
August 23rd, 2023 at 3:22 PM ^
These Netflix "Untold" documentaries seem to operate on the premise that most sports fans are morons and basically have no prior knowledge of the subject they're watching a documentary on.
Perhaps that is the correct approach if you want it to be successful.
August 23rd, 2023 at 3:27 PM ^
So a work of fiction? I am shocked...
August 23rd, 2023 at 3:46 PM ^
I’m about 2 1/2 episodes in, or essentially into the 07 season. They are only lightly touching on the things that I was hoping this documentary would touch on.
Honestly, with Tebow being as involved in this documentary as he is, it’s not surprising. I honestly thought there was a 50-50 chance that this documentary was going to be nothing but a Tebow slurp-fest, and I’m not completely wrong. And I’m thinking with Meyer being as big a narcissist as he is (elite college coach to be certain, but textbook narcissist all the same), there was no way he was going to take part in this documentary if it was going to be a scathing review of his time there.
As an aside, with Netflix having done the Hernandez documentary a few short years ago, I really didn’t expect them to touch on him all that much and rehash information they’ve already put out there.
August 23rd, 2023 at 4:24 PM ^
Appreciate the heads up.
August 23rd, 2023 at 4:25 PM ^
OP’s description is accurate. You wont learn anything you didn’t already know. They gloss over the stories we really want to know. And how do you go a documentary about that team and not interview the Pouncey brothers? The biggest disappointment was no pictures of Tebow’s sod filled face mask.
August 23rd, 2023 at 5:53 PM ^
It's as much a documentary as United Passions was, meaning it isn't in any way shape or form.
August 23rd, 2023 at 6:00 PM ^
I watched Episode 1 last night & could already tell that this was going to be VERY different than most of the other Untold documentaries
August 24th, 2023 at 8:07 AM ^
Beyond disappointing, a full on propaganda piece.
Useful summary:
Urban cried when a player was later killed after being kicked off the team”I can’t believe I have to sit here and do this, I have to take football out of this kids life”
he goes on to state how he will always carry that burden , and essentially he is just trying to help all of these kids with tough backgrounds and other self grandiose statements of how wonderful he really is , but at the same time he fully admits on more than one occasion in different seasons that he was trying to make kids quit , specifically in a unscheduled practice after an unexpected loss. So pretty obvious which kids he wanted to “ save “.
Without saying it directly Mullen calls him a whiny sore loser who is a master manipulator.
and the hero of this nonsense turns out to be Finebaum , which tells you all you need to know
August 24th, 2023 at 8:47 AM ^
Didnt show Hart and Henne party in 07/08 either...disappoint
August 24th, 2023 at 2:31 PM ^
It seemed to be missing a 5th episode. But, Untold probably realized they'd never get Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow to agree to airing too much dirty laundry, and having them was better than not. The closest the documentary ever got to the dirt was Pete Finebaum saying that Urban was willing to look the other way on just about anything. Otherwise, it painted Meyer as way too sympathetic, in my opinion.
August 24th, 2023 at 4:35 PM ^
Just finished watching. All in all, this was really disappointing compared to what I was hoping this would be about, which was hopefully an inside look at the system by which Meyer would let his players in the so-called “circle of trust” get away with shit.
This was really nothing more than a Tim Tebow slurp fest and an Urban Meyer redemption tour after his reputation shattered in Jacksonville. Although, truthfully, when I saw that Meyer was directly involved with the documentary and offering his commentary, I figured I probably wouldn’t be getting what I was looking for. He’s not going to be doing a tell - all of all the seedy shit that went on with his program, and we probably barely scratched the surface of what went on.
Still, really disappointing edition of Untold when the stories around Malice at the Palace, Manti Te’o, and the one they just did a few weeks ago with Johnny Manziel were so good.
Also, no footage or mention whatsoever of that glorious capital one bowl. Automatic downvote.