The 25 Best Sports Documentaries on Netflix Right Now
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Underdog stories. Political intrigue. Forgotten footnotes in the annals of sports history. The best documentaries remind us that there’s more to sports than the box score. Sometimes, it's just about the journey getting there or the meaning of losing (though, we can all agree a first-place finish at the end is pretty damn satisfying). Whatever the case, sports documentaries are more than just a story of trimuph (or losing). There's emotion behind each scene, reminding us why we compete in the first place: the love of the game. (And yes, sometimes money). These documentaries, which cover everything from baseball to wrestling to golf, will show there's so much more to sports than just a catching a ball.
From a series about an NBA great and his legendary place in sports history to another docuseries about a group of athletes who couldn't quite snag gold, these are the 20 best sports docs streaming on Netflix now:
Last Chance U: Basketball
Similar to its predecessor, Last Chance U: Basketball focuses on young males in East Los Angeles hoping to make it to the pro ranks. Aided by a strong-willed coach, these aspiring basketball players do their best to rise to the top.
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CounterPunch
This 2017 documentary follows the lives of three boxers—all of whom are in different stages of life—and their paths towards becoming champions. If you weren't interested in boxing beforehand, this film will renew your interest.
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Last Chance U
One of Netflix's tentpole flagship sports docuseries is Last Chance U, which focuses on a different junior college team with each season. This isn't your typical 'inspirational sports' story—it's focused instead on exactly what the title describes. It the athletes' "last chance" to make it and trasnger to a bigger football program to potentially play for the NFL. And, by hook or crook, they're going to get there. Season 5 was Last Chance U's final look at football, but there's good news—Last Chance U: Basketball is on Netflix.
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The Playbook
Sometimes sport documenatires aren't always about the players, but the minds behind the games: the coaches. Netflix's The Playbook is an episodic anthology of sorts, with each episode focusing on a different championship-level coach in his or her respective sport, telling the rules and tips that help make them great. This could be of particular interest to Phialdelphia 76er fans, who can get a whole episode to see how their brand new coach, Doc Rivers, operates. Also included: soccer manager José Mourinho, USA Soccer coach Jill Ellis, and more.
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The Speed Cubers
The Speed Cubers is an example of a sports documentary that's not centered on one of the mainstream sports that you'd first think of—this story is about the relationship between Max Parks and Feliks Zemdegs, two of the fastest Rubik's Cube solvers in the world. The story here is rich and lovingly told, as we learn not only about the craft and competition of speedily solving a Rubik's Cube, but its a story that just will make viewers feel good. Bonus? At 40 minutes long, this is shorter than an episode of most Netflix original series.
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The Short Game
This Justin Timberlake-produced flick follows a group of seven- and eight-year-old golfers as they compete in the 2012 U.S. Kids Golf World Championship. Sure, the film—which has earned comparisons to Spellbound, the classic look at spelling bee participants—will absolutely make you feel bad about your own skills out on the links, but it’s also an entertaining and often enlightening look at youth sports culture.
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The Last Dance
Capturing Michael Jordan's final season on the Chicago Bulls in 1997-1998, The Last Dance takes a closer look at the legendary player and the events surrounding him and his life off the court.
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Team Foxcatcher
This film tells the story of John du Pont, the wealthy heir to the du Pont family fortune and USA wrestling benefactor who was eventually convicted of murder. Steve Carrell’s turn as du Pont in the 2014 film Foxcatcher earned him a best actor Oscar nod, but this documentary digs deeper, using family footage to tell the tragic true crime story behind the late du Pont.
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The Dawn Wall
They’d spent their lives overcoming obstacles. So when rock climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson set out to scale Yosemite’s Dawn Wall in 2015, it was just one more challenge—albeit a steep one, a 3,000-foot rock face they lived on for weeks.
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Undefeated
The Manassas Tigers high school football team had spent years turning in losing seasons. Then, coach Bill Courtney came along. This Oscar-winning documentary follows the Tigers, from an economically disadvantaged area of Memphis, as they strive for glory both on and off the gridiron.
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The Battered Bastards of Baseball
Minor league baseball has provided the poetic backdrop for many a sports legend, and the tale of the Class-A Portland Mavericks of the 1970s is truly one for the ages. A team that featured future actor Kurt Russell, managed by his father, and the iconic Jim Bouton seeking a comeback after his major league tell-all essentially forced his retirement, the Mavericks earned their name—and this 2014 doc is a great dive into this true-life underdog story.
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Losers
We all know about the Michael Jordans and Michael Phelps of the world. But what about the second-place finishers? The guys who come close, but miss their mark by a mere second, inch, or point? This docuseries follows those athletes you may or may not remember from sports history and how some of them have turned devastating loss into the ultimate personal victory.
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Cheer
Sure, football's a rough and tumble sport, but Cheer proves that those on the sidelines have it rough, too. A look inside a highly competitive cheerleading program at a college in the small town of Corsicana, Texas, the docuseries follows young athletes who are trying to balance their personal lives with, well, actual balancing as they're thrown into the air, on each other's shoulders, and risk their lives for the sport.
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Icarus
Bryan Fogel’s stunning documentary about Russia’s Olympic doping program won best documentary feature at the 2018 Academy Awards—a deserving accolade for a film that not only lifted the veil on the Kremlin’s state-sponsored cheating, but plays out like a real-life political thriller.
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Rising Phoenix
When looking at sports—baseball and football to be specific, we sometimes forget that not every sport is inclusive to all. Thus: paralympic sports. This documentary focuses on a story often ignored: the paralympic games and how it's a beacon of inclusivity, diversity, and triumph.
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Screwball
Sometimes sports documentaries aren't always about the game, but the secrets behind winning. Screwball documents just that. The brilliant mind of filmmaker Billy Corben takes viewers on a behind-the-scenes look at the doping scandal that plagued the Major Baseball League and its key players.
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Fearless
There's risk to almost every single sport. From sprained knees to potential concussions, injuries—some permanent, some not—are expected. But bullriding...well, that's a whole other ballpark. This film showcases one man's journey as a professional bullrider from Brazil to the Las Vegas championships and his mission to earn money and respect at any means (or injuries) necessary.
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Zion
After only 11 minutes you'll never look at wrestling the same way. This short documentary follows Zion Clark, a disabled boy born in foster care who finds his purpose in competitive wrestling. If you're looking for a documentary that's equally sports-focused and emotional, then this short is for you.
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