HBO Snags Michael Strahan’s Bishop Sycamore Football Doc

HBO has picked up rights to a Michael Strahan-produced documentary in regards to the weird and wonderful saga of the Bishop Sycamore soccer crew.

In September, Strahan and Constance Schwartz-Morini’s SMAC Entertainment secured queer rights and access to the anecdote of Roy Johnson, the outdated coach of the Bishop Sycamore program to create a documentary in regards to the Ohio program — which is a extra becoming descriptor than “college” as Bishop Sycamore because it had no fastened deal with, class time table or accreditation in the affirm.

Adam McKay’s Hyperobject Industries, which has an overall deal at HBO, and sports activities newsletter The Athletic receive additionally boarded the documentary as producers in conjunction with SMAC Entertainment and Boat Rocker’s Matador Impart material. The documentary, set for a 2022 premiere, will explore two questions: What precisely is Bishop Sycamore, and who on this planet is Roy Johnson?

Bishop Sycamore was set apart in an unflattering spotlight in unhurried August when ESPN televised a sport between the crew and IMG Academy, a powerhouse, sports activities-focused prep college owned by Endeavor.

All around the game, ESPN announcers, Anish Shroff and Tom Luginbill, discussed the lopsided nature of the matchup (IMG received 58-0) and expressed topic for the protection of the clearly outmatched Bishop Sycamore avid gamers. “Bishop Sycamore prompt us they’d a preference of Division I prospects on their roster, and to be frank, quite plenty of that we could perhaps per chance perhaps no longer test,” Shroff said at some stage in the telecast.

As criticism of the matchup and telecast unfold, ESPN renowned that it had diminished in size with a third celebration, Paragon Marketing, to create the game and other high college matchups it televises. Sports activities media design Terrible Announcing reported that Bishop Sycamore was taking half in its 2nd sport in three days and additionally renowned that the program isn’t identified by the Ohio Excessive College Athletic Affiliation.

Johnson was fired in the fallout from the ESPN sport — partly due to he did a dusky job monitoring avid gamers’ injuries, Bishop Sycamore director Andre Preston prompt a entire lot of media retail outlets — and has a terrific warrant on fraud charges. Other faculties that were scheduled to play Bishop Sycamore subsequently canceled, ending the crew’s season.

Tyren Jackson, who was hired to change Johnson as coach, later prompt NBC 4 in Columbus, “We’re no longer a college. That’s no longer what Bishop Sycamore is, and I have confidence that’s what the supreme false affect about us was, and that was our fault. Because that was a mistake on paperwork.” Jackson as an quite plenty of known as the program a “post-grad soccer academy.”

The anecdote will most most likely be the topic of at least two documentary projects. To boot to the HBO film, Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Productions, Advanced Networks, Klutch Originals and Haven Entertainment are teaming to create a docuseries about Bishop Sycamore.

The HBO documentary is govt produced by McKay and Todd Schulman for Hyperobject Industries; Strahan, Schwartz-Morini and Ethan Lewis for SMAC Entertainment; Jay Peterson, Todd Lubin and Jack Turner for Matador Impart material; Alex Mather and Ankur Chawla for The Athletic; and Spencer Paysinger for Moore Avenue Productions.