The WORST episodes of 30 for 30
Every episode of 30 for 30 ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of 30 for 30!
Inspired by ESPN's anniversary, ESPN Films is launching 30 FOR 30, an unprecedented documentary series featuring 30 of today's finest storytellers telling thirty remarkable stories from the ESPN era. On their own, each of the films will be an intimate look at a specific story, relevant to larger themes from the modern era. Collectively, these films will be a diverse mosaic of what sports has meant to American and World culture in the last thirty years. Each storyteller will bring their passion and personal point of view to their film detailing the issues, trends, athletes, teams, rivalries, games and events that transformed the sports landscape from 1979 to 2009.
#2 - The Last Days of Knight
Season 3 - Episode 26 - Aired 4/18/2018
In 1971, a young basketball coach named Bob Knight came to Indiana University. Over the next few decades, he became a coaching god. Knight delivered three national titles to a state that worships the game, earning a reputation as not just a basketball genius, but a brilliant leader who equated hard work and discipline with success. And yet, there was another side to that success. In April 1999, Robert Abbott, a producer for CNN/Sports Illustrated, began reporting a story investigating why three high school All-Americans had left Knight's program over the prior two years. Nearly two decades later, the 30 for 30 film "The Last Days of Knight" is the previously untold behind-the-scenes story of that investigation and all it produced - a chronicle of accusations, denials, and discoveries; riots and death threats; a smoking gun video; and the fall of a coaching legend. Directed and narrated by Abbott, it's a tale about success, power, abuse, institutions, journalism, and ultimately, a search for truth.
#3 - Seau
Season 3 - Episode 27 - Aired 9/20/2018
The life of NFL legend Junior Seau, from his upbringing in a Samoan immigrant family, through his path to NFL superstardom and status as a league icon, ending in his seemingly inexplicable suicide in 2012.
#5 - Deion's Double Play
Season 3 - Episode 29 - Aired 1/31/2019
A look at Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, focusing especially on a 24-hour span in 1992 when he sandwiched an NFL game between a pair of Major League Baseball postseason games in cities separated by 1,000 miles.
Watch Now:Amazon#6 - The Dominican Dream
Season 3 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/30/2019
"The Dominican Dream" is a portrait of the Dominican immigrants of New York in the '80s and '90s, seen through a loving family whose youngest son, Felipe Lopez, became the top ranked high school basketball player in the nation and was hailed as "The Dominican Michael Jordan'. Embraced as an immigrant hero, then cast aside as an American failure, Felipe Lopez would eventually find happiness not as a basketball player, but as the man he was always meant to be.
#8 - The Good, The Bad, The Hungry
Season 3 - Episode 32 - Aired 7/2/2019
A look at one of the biggest rivalries in sports, that of competitive eaters Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut.
#9 - Rodman: For Better or Worse
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/10/2019
The unfettered and definitive look at the life and career of Dennis Rodman.
#10 - The Two Bills
Season 3 - Episode 25 - Aired 2/1/2018
Bill Belichick will one day join Bill Parcells in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When the time comes, they'll have far more in common than a place in Canton-or a first name. The Two Bills, directed by Ken Rodgers and produced by NFL Films, traces the four-decade relationship between these two coaching masters. They first met when Belichick was a teenager and his father was coaching for Navy while Parcells was coaching at Army. On the same day in 1979, they became assistants with the New York Giants, and after Parcells took over as head coach, they won two Super Bowls together. Buttressed by what he learned from Parcells, Belichick would go on to win five Super Bowls of his own with the Patriots. Through all the ups and downs of their careers, including some memorable games when they were on opposite sides of the field, they forged a bond that few men of their stature have ever experienced. Two Bills, but one epic story.
#11 - Vick (1)
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/30/2020
A comprehensive look back at each chapter of Michael Vick's saga: the incredible rise, shocking fall, and polarizing return.
#12 - Vick (2)
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/6/2020
A comprehensive look back at each chapter of Michael Vick's saga: the incredible rise, shocking fall, and polarizing return.
#13 - Lance (Part 1)
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/24/2020
From acclaimed director Marina Zenovich, LANCE is a fascinating, revealing, comprehensive, chronicle of one of the most inspirational – and then infamous – athletes of all time. Based around extensive interviews and conversations with Lance Armstrong, the two-part, four-hour film tells the story of the cyclist’s rise out of Texas as a young superstar cyclist; his harrowing battle with testicular cancer; his recovery and emergence as a global icon with his seven consecutive Tour de France titles; and then his massive fall after he was exposed in one of the largest doping scandals in history. Armstrong, along with a collection of family, teammates, friends, rivals, and journalists, all reflect on his story, creating a fascinating character study, capturing a unique chapter of sports history, and insisting the audience make its own interpretations about the many different sides of a complex saga.
#14 - Lance (Part 2)
Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/31/2020
From acclaimed director Marina Zenovich, LANCE is a fascinating, revealing, comprehensive, chronicle of one of the most inspirational – and then infamous – athletes of all time. Based around extensive interviews and conversations with Lance Armstrong, the two-part, four-hour film tells the story of the cyclist’s rise out of Texas as a young superstar cyclist; his harrowing battle with testicular cancer; his recovery and emergence as a global icon with his seven consecutive Tour de France titles; and then his massive fall after he was exposed in one of the largest doping scandals in history. Armstrong, along with a collection of family, teammates, friends, rivals, and journalists, all reflect on his story, creating a fascinating character study, capturing a unique chapter of sports history, and insisting the audience make its own interpretations about the many different sides of a complex saga.
#15 - Be Water
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 6/7/2020
In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland, Hong Kong. Over the next two years, he’d complete four iconic films that would define his legacy, a legacy cut short when he died, stunningly, in the summer of 1973. He was 32 years old. “Be Water” is a gripping, fascinating, intimate look at not just those final, defining years of Lee’s life, but the complex, often difficult, and seismic journey that led to Lee’s ultimate emergence as a singular icon in the histories of film, martial arts, and even the connection between the eastern and western worlds.
#16 - Long Gone Summer
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 6/14/2020
It was one of the most memorable and significant seasons in the history of baseball. In the summer of 1998, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire and the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa embarked on a chase of one of the game’s most hallowed records, igniting the passion and imagination of fans and non-fans everywhere. The drama, excitement, and results would be remembered for generations. If we only knew then just how complex our feelings about it all would eventually become.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV#17 - Life and Trials of Oscar Pistorius (Part 1)
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 9/27/2020
South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, known as the Blade Runner, is a sports star and a role model for millions, until he shoots his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
#19 - The Prince of Pennsylvania
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/20/2015
Explores the turbulent relationship between Olympic wrestling brothers Mark and Dave Schultz and their benefactor, John du Pont, culminating in the murder of Dave by du Pont.
#20 - Chasing Tyson
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/10/2015
Explores the years that Evander Holyfield spent trying to arrange his first fight with Mike Tyson.
#21 - Doc & Darryl
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 7/14/2016
The connection between the lives and careers of former New York Mets Dwight "Doc" Gooden and Darryl Strawberry.
#22 - Phi Slama Jama
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/18/2016
A profile of the iconic Houston Cougars men's basketball teams of the 1980s, fronted by Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, whose explosive play and highlight-making slam dunks earned the team the nickname Phi Slama Jama.
#23 - Hit It Hard
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/1/2016
A look at John Daly's rise from obscurity to two major championship wins and fall back to mediocrity.
#24 - Catholics vs. Convicts
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/10/2016
A look at the notorious 1988 Notre Dame–Miami football game and its personal and cultural impact.
#25 - This Was the XFL
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/2/2017
A bold challenge, a fearless experiment and ultimately, a spectacular failure. In 2001, sports entertainment titans Dick Ebersol and Vince McMahon used the marketing behemoths of their respective companies -- NBC and WWE -- and launched the XFL.