Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Many Lives Of Nick Buoniconti’ On HBO, A Documentary About The NFL Hall Of Famer And Philanthropist

Most people know Nick Buoniconti from his days as the leader of the “No-Name Defense” which helped the Miami Dolphins win two Super Bowls in the early ’70s. One of those two seasons, 1972, the team completed the only perfect season in NFL history. Others my know him from his quarter-century hosting Inside the NFL with Len Dawson. But Buoniconti’s life is defined by much more than football. And now in his last chapter, he’s in for the struggle of his life, as the new film The Many Lives of Nick Buoniconti documents. Read on for more info…

THE MANY LIVES OF NICK BUONICONTI: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The film starts off in the Westhampton, NY home of Nick Buoniconti, who, at 78 years old, can barely walk. He’s taken out to his porch by an aide, and he sits and looks out over his front yard. In Buoniconti’s opinion, he has been suffering from CTE, which develops over time as an aftereffect of repeated hits to the head. And considering he played linebacker for over 20 years, from high school to Notre Dame to a Hall of Fame career with the Patriots and Dolphins, he got hit in the head a lot.

But the film, directed by Bentley Weiner and narrated by Liev Schreiber, goes on to talk about the many facets of Buoniconti’s life, from his childhood in Springfield, MA, to his days in college at ND, to his pro football career, where he was selected in the 13th round of the 1962 AFL draft by the Patriots (he was considered to be too small to be an NFL linebacker). After seven years with the Pats, he was traded to the Dolphins, then a struggling expansion franchise. Football fans know what happened from there: Don Shula was hired, and the team went on two win two consecutive Super Bowls, including a perfect season in 1972. Buoniconti was the leader of the “No-Name Defense.” In the meantime, he went to law school and got his degree near the end of his playing days.

After his 1976 retirement, Buoniconti was a lawyer, an executive for American Tobacco (where he went on 60 Minutes to defend the company’s products against cancer claims), a sports agent, and a co-host of HBO’s popular program Inside The NFL. But much of the documentary involves the devastating injury suffered by Buoniconti’s son Marc during a college football game; the injury left his son a quadriplegic, and Buoniconti has devoted his life since then to raising money for research into curing paralysis. He’s raised millions via his Miami Project charity, and while he is sad that he won’t get to see Marc walk again, Marc is extremely happy his dad was there fighting for him.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Every NFL Network or HBO documentary about a former player, except with more swearing.

Performance Worth Watching: Cris Collinsworth, who joined Inside The NFL right after he retired in 1989, talks about how much crap Buoniconti gave him during his first season on the show, until Collinsworth finally stood up to the old linebacker and said about the copy he was writing, “At least it’s better than that shit you’re writing.” They got along after that.

Memorable Dialogue: Anyone who’s seen Buoniconti over the last few decades knows how outgoing and loquacious he is. So it was a shock to see him falter so many times during his interview, either not remembering an anecdote or when he thinks he jumbles his words. He’s especially frustrated at himself as he tries to explain why the NFL’s owners didn’t provide enough money to former players who were deteriorating due to CTE. “Sorry… I’m not, uh, I’m not, uh… coherent.”

Our Take: The Many Lives of Nick Buoniconti looks and feels like any other sports biography that’s been on TV over the last 30 years. Archival photos and clips are interspersed with interviews with Buoniconti, his sons Marc and Nick Jr., his wife Lynn, his former coach Don Shula, former client Len Dawson, and more.

But where this documentary differs is that Buoniconti’s football life is just a small part of his life story; so much more concentrates on his life after football, especially after his son Marc became a quadriplegic. It covers Buoniconti’s career and life well, and doesn’t varnish over his regrets over defending American Tobacco against the claims that their smokeless tobacco products cause cancer. Though, it must be pointed out, that despite his regret, he stayed on at the company for years after he went on 60 Minutes, and would have stayed as its president and COO if the board didn’t fire him, mainly because so much of his time was taken up by the Miami Project.

One aspect the documentary doesn’t cover is how Buoniconti was the public face of the Dolphins’ perfect season, and would gleefully and publicly celebrate every season when the last undefeated team gets its first loss. After a while, it felt like poor sportsmanship at its worst, but it likely didn’t fit the tone of the film, especially once it went into Buoniconti’s neurological problems.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Anyone who is a football fan who knows Buoniconti, either from his playing days or his time on Inside The NFL, will want to tune into The Many Lives of Nick Buoniconti, not only to find out about his multi-faceted life, but to see that he’s still a fighter, even as his health declines.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream The Many Lives Of Nick Buoniconti on HBO Go