I have to start by listing my alliances, born and raised in Seahawk country, I am a loyal Seahawks fan. Having said that I also bleed purple and gold as a University of Washington Husky. Now that we got that out of the way, it is not to say that I haven't appreciated and been fans of specific players...huge Howie Long fan from waaaaay back, even though he played for the hated Raiders, and Peyton Manning? Who doesn't live Peyton Manning? Also there have been a few USC quarterbacks that I have watched and cheered for, but that is kind of the extent of my football fandom.
Having said all of that, my husband (the traitor that he is) is a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan...so I have been subjected to every one of Patrick Mahoney' games since we started dating and eventually married. Which is what brought us to watching this Quarterback documentary. Do I feel any affinity for the Chiefs? No. But I will say I have appreciated the head coach Andy Reid over the years. He seems to be a class act all around.
That was a long explanation for why I don't have a horse in this race between the three quarterbacks followed over the course of the documentary: Kirk Cousins, Marcus Mariota, and Patrick Mahomes.
The documentary did a wonderful job sharing the ins and outs of the job of the quarterback on an American football team in the NFL, every hit at a time over the course of a single season (the 2022-23 season). Each episode highlights a different aspect of their job from the mental game to dealing with the wear and tear to their bodies.
The series was well put together and moved along quickly throughout the season. Personally I gained a lot of respect for Kirk Cousins. I am not sure that I saw him play a single game in the 2022 season and I couldn't even have told you his name before watching this documentary, but I am not going to forget him now. I appreciated his relationship with his wife and children. I appreciated that they sat in the stands, drove a minivan, took their kids to school, and carved out time to take a neighborhood walk with one another. There were two things that I saw Kirk Cousins do in this documentary that solidified my viewing him as a class act and will make me forever remember his name (and maybe tune in to watch him play football!): the first is watching him drive his wife and son home in their minivan after loosing a very important playoff game and not only taking the time to sign an autograph in the parking lot but to read a bedtime story and tuck each of his kids into bed which spoke volumes about him as a person and a father and the second which is something small and seemingly very simple...but the fact that he sits down weekly in this day and age and hand writes letters to his fans that write to him. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a human being. I might even have to write him a letter myself.
Marcus Mariota's story was the hardest to watch as he doesn't finish the 2022 season as quarterback. He and his wife do community outreach and welcomed their first child into the world. Like the Cousins, the Mariotas seemed like regular people. Marcus seemed to be the most reserved and maybe the most insecure of the three. Unfortunately, right from the preseason training it was obvious that his head coach didn't spend the kind of time off the field and on the field that the other two quarterbacks experienced with their head coaches. For an outside observer it would be easy to see how that might play into the head game and insecurities of a quarterback. So, I guess you could say I lost a lot of respect for Arthur Smith, the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons (guess I won't be cheering for them any time soon, which works out since Marcus is now playing for The Philadelphia Eagles). This was quite the contrasting story since Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes have such a great relationship and Kirk Cousins who got off to a bumpy start with his head coach Kevin O'Connell (in fact you could say they initially butted heads) but then really started to gel from game 8 onward. It made the absence in the communication between head coach Arthur Smith to his quarterback really noticeable. Bad on you, Arthur. I guess you get what you cultivate and work for.
The one downside is I lost a little respect for the Mahomes family who came across as elitist one percenters sitting away from the stands in their private boxes at games, flying private jets, building mega mansions with swim up bars in their pools, owning professional soccer teams, and partying while they work as "influencers"...meanwhile rape allegations are brought against Patrick's younger brother (another "influencer" who is depicted in this documentary). Yeah, I kind of lost some respect for them. The nicest thing I can say about them at this point is that Patrick met his wife while he was young and they are still together...she is embarrassingly immature and self-centered even though she is a year older than he is. I hope they are able to last, but it doesn't seem like they are laying the best groundwork for their future.
While I am not a big football fan, I did enjoy this documentary tremendously. I looked at it as a study in the human condition and I was quite heartened to be introduced to a class act like Kirk Cousins. I think if you are a football fan this is a must see and I highly recommend it. If you are not a football fan but enjoyed learning about top athletes, their job and family life...I still highly recommend it.
