As sport fans can order up specialized programs to meet their varied interests, traditional sport movies have been funneled to us in a variety of new ways. Over the past 3 years, Netflix has come out with several outstanding sports documentaries that have received a great deal of popular attention and is available to watch anytime. Shows like “Swamp Kings' ' featuring the Florida Gators Football dynasty, “Colin in Black and White”, telling a story of Colin Kapernicks road to the NFL, and “Quarterback”, produced by Peyton Manning set the stage for Netflix’s newest docuseries, “Receiver”. Manning passed the torch to Randy Moss for this series and had the documentary follow five of the greatest receivers in the NFL throughout the 2023-2024 football season. Randy lets Payton know the show is in “good hands” and then takes the lead as narrator. Justin Jefferson, Devonte Adams, George Kittle, Amon Ra St. Brown, and Deebo Samuel, were all followed in detail through their past football season. After watching the truly interesting show, I was intrigued to see where these allstars were going into the 2024 NFL season, and what storylines were surrounding these players going into the season. The show did a great job of promoting the upcoming NFL season and several top players to a wide audience.
Justin Jefferson is a wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings going into his fourth NFL season with the purple and gold. Over this offseason, Jefferson signed a robust four year, 140 million dollar deal. This deal that large for a wide receiver opened the conversation around wide receivers salaries, and why they deserve these types of large contracts. Throughout the documentary, it was shown that Jefferson had two major injuries in the 2023 season. He missed nearly seven weeks with a hamstring injury, and also internal lung bruising in his first game back from the primary hamstring injury. Jefferson looks to solidify his role as the best wide receiver in football this season by staying healthy, and living up to the hype of his new immense deal.
Devonte Adams is a wide receiver currently with the Las Vegas Raiders. That being said, trade talks are very prevalent with Adamas. Throughout the 2023 season, the documentary highlighted frustrations that Adams had with the Las Vegas Raiders team. After head coach Josh Mcdaniels was fired, Adams seemed to have a spark that reignited. Amidst all of the trade talks, Raiders General Manager Tom Telesco, stated “He’s a Raider”, referring to Devonte. Although this may seem promising to Raiders fans, it will be interesting to see if Devonte Adams keeps hope in the future for the Raiders, or decides to trade in for a higher success team with a quarterback he may gel more with. That being said, wherever Devonte Adamas ends up he is undoubtedly one of the best, most consistent receivers in football and his legacy will continue on through the 2024 season.
George Kittle is a San Francisco 49ers Tight End. Currently, he is on a 75 million dollar contract that is going through this season and next. The biggest talk surrounding George Kittle is the constant restructuring of his contract. It has also been discussed that he could be at an age where we may start to see some decline in Kittles performance, and his playoff production may not be what the 49ers need when they are a true SuperBowl team. Going into this upcoming season, everyone is waiting patiently to see if Kittle can continue to be the all star he has been in the past, or if this contract reconstruction is a way of the 49ers predicting a decline in performance of a legendary tight end. Kittle is by definition a tight end, however his exciting personality combined with his great hands make him a great fit for this show.
Amon-Ra St. Brown, for the Detroit Lions, 77 million in guarantees for his contract. Additionally, if he stays on through 2026, his 27.5 million dollar contract stays and is guaranteed.St. Brown has expressed he is going to work as hard as ever to prove that his believers are right, and his doubters are wrong. During the 2023 season, St. Brown was snubbed from the Pro bowl at the end of a remarkable season, and he did not take that lightly. Amon-Ra looms to prove his worth after his new extension, and said “I told everyone, I’m going harder now”. Additionally, Amon-Ra expressed love for the fans of Detirot constantly throughout the 2023 season. He brought success back into the city and team, and because of that his connection with the city is truly special. It will be exciting to watch Amon-Ra look to continue his greatness and prove his believers right this season.
Lastly, Deebo Samuel is a receiver for the 49ers. Deebo has a contract running through 2025 with an average annual value of 23.850 million dollars. Samuel will look to continue success by staying healthy this season. He has had a tough run with upper body injuries and he looks to stay healthy to establish himself as one of the best. He is versatile, fast, and strong. All of these qualities are amplified this year at training camp, because he has been described to be in the best shape he has been in since 2021. This gives hope to the entire organization that Deebo is ready to hit the ground running and have an outstanding season. This new spark may be just the leadership that the 49ers need from an experienced, talented vet.
Overall, “Receiver”, from Netflix has given us many storylines to follow going into the 2024 NFL season. The look into personal lives and day to day life of these players in this documentary make them even more interesting to follow. Like Quarterback the focus on wives and families draws more than just the hard core NFL fan. The talent, dedication, and passion of these players was amplified throughout the show, and they will all being great things to the field through this 204 season. Watching them all compete to be the best will be amazing, and a once in a lifetime display of talent.
3 https://www.si.com/nfl/49ers/news/were-the-49ers-smart-to-restructure-george-kittles-contract
4 https://www.marca.com/en/nfl/detroit-lions/2024/05/03/66341508e2704ec2938b45cf.html