This is a review of the continuing NFL Network/NFL Films documentary series, “America’s Game, The Super Bowl Champions”. As it has for the previous XLV installments, NFL Films has a successful formula, getting three to four of the winning team’s coaches and players to talk about the season leading up to the Super Bowl, then getting their reactions to winning the championship.
For the program on the Super Bowl XLVI Champions, the New York Giants, NFL Films was able to have coach Tom Coughlin, quarterback Eli Manning, wide receiver Victor Cruz and defensive end Justin Tuck to talk about their experiences about the 2011 season.
One of the themes of the season and the documentary was “Finish”, in which Cough Coughlin used a film of a high school cross country runner struggling to finish a race on her hands and knees to help her team win to get his point across. And another theme was “All In” which the team used poker chips at the end of the season to put all of their hand on the table to guide them through another improbable playoff run to win the Super Bowl.
“30 Rock” co-star and New York native Alec Baldwin narrates the documentary and notes several key points in the season including regular season wins over the New England Patriots and the Dallas Cowboys plus a loss to the Green Bay Packers that gave the G-Men confidence for a second meeting in the postseason.
As with previous “America’s Game” documentaries, the subjects speak directly into the camera. They provide interesting insights including Victor Cruz telling the viewer that he received a text from Eli Manning asking him to meet up in the offseason so he could throw and get familiar with him.
Also, Manning talked about several key moments including his speech to the team about how he didn’t want to be like his brother Peyton after a Super Bowl loss.
One of the better moments was seeing Giants matriarch Ann Mara scolding Fox’s Terry Bradshaw on air after the NFC Championship Game. It was funny seeing it live and even better that the scene was shown in the documentary.
Giants fans will definitely shed a tear watching the documentary. Overall, it’s a familiar NFL Films formula that works in the best sports documentary series on television. The grade is the usual A for NFL Films and America’s Game.
