An upcoming documentary surrounding the Urban Meyer era of the Florida football program should be nothing short of fascinating.
It was only a matter of time before Netflix decided to do a documentary on the Urban Meyer era of Florida football.
He wasn't in Gainesville for very long, but he left an indelible impact. Florida won its two most recent national titles under his watch. His greatest player was 2007 Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Tim Tebow. Another very important player to star for him in Gainesville was former New England Patriots tight end and convicted murderer in the late Aaron Hernandez. Oh, boy…
The documentary surrounding the Florida program from 2006-09 will be airing on Netflix as "Swamp Kings" beginning on Aug. 23.
Meyer was a great college head coach, but his Florida departure commenced a lifetime of baggage he is probably never going to get rid of. It ended weird for him at Ohio State, terribly in Jacksonville and with multiple stints on the TV analyst side of things, first for ESPN, and now back with FOX.
The Urban Meyer era of Florida football will be featured in a Netflix documentary
It doesn't really matter what Netflix uncovers here or not, this is the perfect time to do a documentary on the subject. We are more than a decade removed since Meyer last coached in Gainesville. While some guys from that era of Gators football are still playing to some degree, Tebow has pivoted to an ultra-successful media career with ESPN. And then, there's Hernandez…
The latter is probably going to be the most shocking and potentially damning thing we will see in the entire documentary. Hernandez was an outstanding player with a troublesome past he could never seen to fully escape, no matter where he played football. His criminal behavior caught up with him in New England, but there was always something sinister and nefarious brewing at UF…
The fact you have the ultimate saint in Tebow and the ultimate sinner in Hernandez on the same team, working together to achieve excellence on the gridiron for one of the most polarizing head coaches of all time, we have no idea what is coming. It may be a great look for Tebow and others, but it'll probably be more of the same for Hernandez, and may keep Meyer out of coaching forever.
All I know is we will certainly learn a lot more about this era of Gators football, for better or worse.