Year: 2016
Runtime: 45:02
Originally aired on: NBCSN
This documentary chronicles the 2001 NASCAR season and the year that will never be forgotten. Unfolding through Dale Earnhardt’s tragic death at the 2001 Daytona 500, the enormous outpouring of emotions that followed, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s stirring victory at the July Daytona race, NASCAR Seasons: 2001 also covers the sport’s passionate reaction to the tragic events of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Year: 2016
Runtime: 46:35
Originally aired on: NBC
Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman narrates this documentary, which chronicles Jesse Owens’ historic performance at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Made by NBC Sports Films, “More than Gold: Jesse Owens and the 1936 Berlin Olympics” draws from interviews with former Olympic teammates, historians, and family members, and it highlights the magnitude of Owens’ performance, and explores how his victories in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay, and long jump in Berlin inspired generations who followed him.
“More Than Gold will invite viewers inside the story of a pioneering athlete, who in the face of racial discrimination at home and the horrific theories and practices of Nazi Germany, performed at his best under immense pressure,” said Mark Levy, Senior Vice President, Original Productions and Creative, NBC Sports Group. “Viewers will experience the Games through the compelling memories of Jesse’s surviving Olympic teammates, who were eye-witnesses to those events.”
Derek Sanderson’s story has the classic Hollywood arc: Young man from humble beginnings works his way to the big time, finds fame and fortune, lives too hard and too fast, shatters his own life and hits rock bottom, before finding redemption through faith, maturity, and the kindness of friends. But this story is so outrageous, so crazy, and so entertaining, it doesn’t need Hollywood – the truth is better than fiction.
“Center of Attention: The Unreal Life of Derek Sanderson” follows Sanderson as he wins two Stanley Cups alongside his friend and teammate Bobby Orr, becomes a nightclub owner and coast-to-coast celebrity, widely known as “The Joe Namath of Hockey,” and signs what was then the richest contract in the history of pro sports, only to lose it all in a haze of booze and drugs.
Sanderson’s addictions almost killed him – but that wasn’t the end of his story. He would emerge from the darkness to undertake a comeback few believed possible.