Recent sports documentaries have taken viewers behind the scenes at tennis Grand Slams, Formula One races and PGA Tour events, but the creators of “Quarterback” are covering new ground in familiar territory: the NFL.
“Quarterback” tries to fill the interstitial space, taking viewers to birthday parties, prenatal tests and the car ride home after a close playoff loss.
“No other position impacts a game in a professional sport like the quarterback does,” showrunner Joe Zucco said. “We have this unique position where we have three guys that are all at different levels in their careers. We have them every game of the season, and we also get to see how they deal with loss and then have to go home and be a dad. It’s just a great look and I hope representation of all that goes into being the face of a franchise.”
For eight episodes, “Quarterback” follows Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes, Minnesota Vikings Pro Bowl pick Kirk Cousins and then-Atlanta Falcons signal caller Marcus Mariota across the 2022 season.
Episode 3, “King of Pain,” opens with Cousins showing off his bruises in a cold tub and spends the next 40 minutes offering a soundtrack of grunts, groans and high-speed collisions as the QBs and their loved ones discuss the physicality of the position and show how they recover and refuel.
The next episode, “Mind Games,” opens with each player reciting the dizzying sequence of nouns, letters and directions that identify their play-calls — “Gun east right, slot stack, run past three jet chip, X-cattle, Y-lock,” naturally. The episode takes viewers through the intellectual rigors of the position, showing how Cousins uses the recorder app on his phone to memorize third down plays and how Mahomes identifies vulnerabilities in defenses and designs one of the Chiefs’ more creative plays.
The Netflix sports docuseries “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” proved to be such a success, the streaming service partnered with its production team to create similar behind-the-scenes series about professional golf and tennis.
Meanwhile, Netflix remained keen on an NFL-focused series. When it decided to center that program around quarterbacks, it partnered with Peyton Manning, his Omaha Productions company and NFL Films. Manning, who is an executive producer, helped Netflix secure the quarterbacks — and the access — at the heart of the show.
The directors of “Quarterback” spent years working on the NFL Films-produced television series “Hard Knocks,” but the Netflix show aims for a more intimate feel.
You see Mariota as he loses his starting job to rookie Desmond Ridder, Cousins as he engineers the biggest comeback in NFL history and Mahomes as he fights through an ankle injury en route to winning the Super Bowl.
You also see Mariota and his wife, Kiyomi Cook, preparing for the birth of their first child. You hear Mahomes’s prolific potty mouth. And you sit in the back seat of Cousins’s SUV as he and his wife, Julie Hampton, meditate on the loss during their drive home after the Vikings’ playoff game vs. the New York Giants — before they pull up to their home and Hampton abruptly reminds her husband it’s trash night.
“One thing we knew we wanted to get was being with a quarterback on a Sunday night after a game,” executive producer Keith Cossrow said. “We all hear the criticism of these guys, you know? ‘Why did he check down and throw to [T.J.] Hockenson on fourth and seven? Why didn’t he throw to Justin Jefferson like he did in Buffalo?’ Kirk explains it in the car on the way home to his wife. It’s just an incredible moment to be with them and to experience their life. We’re so grateful to all three of them for letting us do it.”