The Prime Video series Raise the Flags: 50 Years of Buccaneers Football is the latest in a growing trend of team-focused NFL documentaries. It’s not far removed from Netflix doing America’s Team about the Dallas Cowboys. The Kansas City Chiefs had The Kingdom on ESPN. One can only wonder if every NFL franchise will get the docuseries treatment at some point—and why?

The “why” of Raise the Flags is mostly that it’s about a team that hasn’t always been in the spotlight. Fans don’t know the Tampa Bay story the way that they know about the Cowboys, the Chiefs or the New England Patriots. This is a little more obscure corner of football history, and the ten-episode series is at its best when it leans into that. Things like what happened to Doug Williams, and the tragedy that befell Warrick Dunn, are the most interesting segments—the ones that are about more than winning and losing. They provide an extra dimension that isn’t always thought of.

Docuseries should be telling people things they don’t know, or introducing them to people they don’t know. And in its first half, Raise the Flags does a great job of that. It also helps that the “talking head” segments are mostly from those involved with the team in some capacity; there are not as many from pundits and other outsiders as viewers would see in other sports documentaries. The people that fans want to hear from—whose voices lend any documentary the credibility it requires—are the ones who lived the experience. And those folks do truly feel like the stars here.

But speaking of stars, Raise the Flags loses some momentum when it gets into the modern era of Tom Brady and Baker Mayfield. NFL fans know them and know their stories almost too well, so there aren’t as many “aha” moments, and Episodes 7 and 8 come close to being more about Tom Brady than they are about the team. It’s a hard line to walk; obviously Brady was a massive part of the success at that time, and he deserves his credit and his space in the story. But there are moments when the NFL legend almost overshadows the rest of the group.

Yet for Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans, Raise the Flags does a good job of covering most of the team’s history and presenting it in a fair light. The ten episodes don’t feel as pro-franchise as America’s Team did. And the lineup of talent provide pretty interesting quotes (though that’s to be expected when one of the interview subjects is Jon Gruden). For those who aren’t Bucs fans, the show is worth a look just for some of the less well-known stories. Even if a viewer doesn’t make it through all ten episodes, even one or two will give them a greater appreciation of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers—and why this franchise earned a show about its history.

Raise the Flags: 50 Years of Buccaneers Football is now streaming on Prime Video. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.