Did you ever hear the one about the high school football team that didn’t actually exist but still got to play on ESPN?
Well, this bizarre saga is getting the documentary treatment. According to the Hollywood Reporter, HBO has begun filming a documentary about the strangest story in football from last season.
In case you haven’t heard, “Bishop Sycamore” somehow convinced producers at ESPN to have them play against IMG Academy (Fla.) a year ago. It didn’t go great for the scammers. The fake powerhouse Ohio state school wound up losing to highly-ranked IMG Academy by a score of 58-0. The blowout was so bad that broadcasters expressed concern about the players’ safety on the Centurions during the game.
The loss caused head coach Roy Johnson to get fired. In a twist, his replacement admitted to a TV station in Columbus that it wasn’t actually a school but a “post-grad football academy,” whatever that means.
New York Giants great Michael Strahan’s company SMAC Entertainment won the rights to tell the story, with the Athletic and Oscar-winning director Adam McKay‘s Hyperobject Industries and Boat Rocker hopping in as co-producers on the project. Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe are the directors.
The film will be available to stream on HBO Max in 2023.
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