ESPN, HOW ABOUT 60 for 1986?

Allow me to begin by disclosing that I am skeptical about ESPN. Sort of like the way Jerry was skeptical about Tom, high school girls are skeptical about pimples or the kids that lived on Elm Street were skeptical of Freddy Krueger. However, when the network announced that it would be "celebrating" its 30th anniversary with a new series of hour-long sports documentary programming called 30 for 30, I was more than a little intrigued.

Side Note: What does it say about you when you are forced to celebrate your own accomplishments because you have so ostracized everybody else in your industry that nobody else wants to acknowledge your longevity and the innovations you're responsible for (including the many horrors that go along with it)?

As a sports fan and a cinema fan, sports documentaries are twice as delicious for me. If done well, a sports documentary is a well told, visually stimulating, in-depth look at a subject that, for me, is inherently fascinating. It has always amazed me that HBO was allowed by ESPN and other networks to possess such a stranglehold on the sports documentary market. Films that investigate the de-segregation of college football in the South, the triumph and tragedy of US Olympic teams and the odyssey of Barbaro were just a few of the many exquisitely produced HBO films that dealt with relevant sports topics.

Meanwhile, ESPN toiled with films like "A Season on the Brink," and "Hustle." Forgettable films starring Brian Dennehy and Tom Sizemore respectively that were overproduced and not as good as the books they were adapted from. But now, with 30 in 30, comes a chance for ESPN to make up for all of its former misdeeds. Thirty true documentaries exploring topics from the last 30 years in sports, all directed by interested and reputable filmmakers sounded like a fantastic idea.

When the website for the series was launched, it didn't include a full list of documentary titles and topics but did list enough to whet the sports fan's appetite. The first two installments have been solid and worth watching, but the documentary that I think every Penn State fan is waiting for is a look at the 1987 Fiesta Bowl against the Miami Hurricanes. It was the first topic that I unsuccessfully searched for when the list of titles was posted online and seemed to be a no-brainer as the subject of a sports documentary.

As of October 20, there is still no mention of a film about that night that really did change college football as a mode of national entertainment. However, a careful inspection of the opening credits of the 30 for 30 series shows the Miami players infamously marching down the steps of their charter flight to the desert in combat fatigues. There is a film listed that will focus on the Miami football program in the 1980s, and its possible that this is where the clip comes from. However, it would be another case of ESPN dropping the ball if it refused to devote an hour to this football game that still ranks as one of the most-popular and most referenced national title games of all time.