Amazon struck gold with the documentary on the 2015 Arizona Cardinals, “All or Nothing,” an extended, behind-the-scenes version of “Hard Knocks.” So the company is doubling down on its NFC West success and announced on Friday it would be releasing another season of “All or Nothing.”
This time, however, the subject matter is a little different, as the series will focus on the Rams’ return to Los Angeles in 2016.
Yes, the season that began with Jeff Fisher promising no more “7-9 bulls--t” on “Hard Knocks” (which is kind of awkward) and ended with the Rams firing Jeff Fisher after nearly five seasons and no playoff appearances, and the Rams going 4-12 is going to be chronicled in all its low-key glory.
The good news is that there are plenty of storylines here, even if the end result was a lot more “Nothing” than it was “All.”
“‘All or Nothing’ brings Amazon Prime members a deep dive into the lives of professional athletes,” Conrad Riggs, head of unscripted for Amazon Originals, told Variety about the announcement. “We are excited to highlight the L.A. Rams in season two, a team with a compelling story of relocation, rebuilding and reuniting with the city they once again call home.”
The only issue some of us might have with the Rams being featured in this series is that it feels like there’s a disconnect between what the NFL thinks about football in Los Angeles and what the average fan thinks about football in Los Angeles.
It’s exciting that the Rams returned to L.A. Football in a great big city. Yay! But it’s probably not exciting enough to warrant multiple documentaries about a team that won four games.
There’s some fun personalities on the squad, sure. Jared Goff is a rookie quarterback who played at Cal then moved to Los Angeles and has some pressure on him. William Hayes doesn’t believe in dinosaurs. Um, Les Snead has great hair? (He does.)
The details behind Fisher’s firing and any ensuing power struggles therein could be fascinating if the Rams allowed the cameras to really detail what happened.
And it’s totally possible that the documentary skews completely opposite of the Cardinals’ season. Whereas Arizona had some crazy mojo rolling and just kept getting more and more confident throughout the season, the Rams’ rendition could veer into some morbid, dark place. Which would be kind of fun.
NFL Films is behind this, so it will end up being a cool project. Their stuff is almost always interesting. But the Rams are not the world’s sexiest project to take on, at least not in a very boring 2016 season that couldn’t even live up to the seven-win standard.
Amazon Prime members (are there people who aren’t Prime members?) can stream the device on the Prime app or on Amazon Fire TV and Amazon Fire Stick.
