On July 18, ESPN will drop the first episode of its five-part documentary The Captain. The series focuses on the life and career of New York Yankee great Derek Jeter.
While the ad campaign has certainly raised awareness of the project, at least one broadcaster cannot imagine it is worth the audience’s time.
“Having covered him, interviewed him, I always thought that he was very nice in not saying anything,” Dan Patrick said Wednesday on his FOX Sports Radio show.
Patrick will be featured briefly in The Captain. A clip of an interview he did with Alex Rodriguez back in 2000, while Patrick was on ESPN Radio, is included as part of a discussion of Rodriguez’s relationship with Jeter. During his conversation with Patrick, ARod was highly critical of a guy that would eventually become his teammate.
Patrick also revealed that the long-standing rumor regarding the way Derek Jeter used to treat the women that he slept with is set to be debunked. Jeter makes his first public comments in 11 years about a 2011 story in the New York Post that said he arranges for the women to have a town car and gift basket waiting for them the next morning. According to the initial story, the basket included a signed baseball. The whole story is made up according to Jeter.
“There’s no reason to watch now! I know how it ends!” Patrick joked.
While the story about the gift baskets is ripe for parody, it represents a serious problem for ESPN according to Patrick. That may be the most interesting story there is to tell about Derek Jeter.
“He, kind of start to finish, did pretty well. There were no major injuries I don’t think, no arrests, no controversy even with the steroids.”
Patrick noted that there were moments of humanity and vulnerability that made The Last Dance interesting. Sure, people have fond memories of those Chicago Bulls teams and Michael Jordan is an icon with influence beyond sports, but what is remembered is the way Jordan reacted to stories his teammates told about him and the comments and criticisms that brought him to tears.
If viewers see that from Derek Jeter in The Captain, Dan Patrick says it will be the first time any of us have seen it.
“I do have great admiration for him as a baseball player. The other stuff? There are some guys that give you stuff and some who don’t.”
