The most memorable moments of ‘All or Nothing’
Jul 4, 2016, 10:00 AM
Arizona Cardinals defensive back Tyrann Mathieu (32) celebrates with cornerback Patrick Peterson (21) after intercepting a pass in the end zone in the second half of an NFL football game against the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)
(AP Photo/Bill Haber)
It’s hard not to fall in love with a professional sports team after a show like”Hard Knocks” or “24/7” takes us inside the locker room.
Sometimes it leads to “The Hard Knocks effect” in fantasy football when a player such as Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins last year or Falcons wideout Roddy White two years ago are selected a round or two higher after they gained fans from being on the TV shows.
The same could be said for the way the Arizona Cardinals were portrayed in the new Amazon documentary “All or Nothing.” How could a Buffalo Bills fan not love Cory Redding for baking cookies for the team after a win? What about a diehard Kansas City Chiefs supporter when Bruce Arians talks about his bond with Tyrann Mathieu?
There were many moments like this in the show. Here are some of the best.
Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu’s leadership
There are no words for this @Mathieu_Era pregame speech.
Just goosebumps. 😯 #AllorNothing https://t.co/NpabzdJmhn https://t.co/LYIVCltH9f
— NFL (@NFL) July 2, 2016
Most of the time, we assume the veterans are the leaders of a team. That’s true in some ways for the Cardinals but after watching “All or Nothing,” the leaders of the defense appear to be the 25-year-old Peterson and 24-year-old Mathieu.
The Cardinals held Super Bowl aspirations, and a 19-13 win in San Francisco simply wasn’t good enough for Peterson. He followed Arians’ post-game speech by telling the defense, “hold on, defense, we’ll be in there at 11. We gotta fix this.”
Peterson ran the film session the next morning. He had pointers for the younger Mathieu, but also made sure Pro Bowl defensive lineman Calais Campbell, who is entering his ninth season with the team, was in check with what went wrong.
Mathieu was much more about motivation and making sure his team had the will to make a deep playoff run a reality.
“Assignments are what you supposed to do, it really about heart. It takes a lot of courage to play these people,” Mathieu said to his teammates.
“So, us as a group, we have to be courageous. And it can’t be fake courage — this gotta be real. We cannot be scared of them. We gon’ walk in that (expletive) and it’s gonna be crazy. Who gon’ break first? Who gon’ break first?!”
If you aren’t ready to sprint straight through a brick wall after hearing Mathieu’s speech to his team, I don’t know who you are.
Peterson can’t help but smile and chuckle after Mathieu proclaims, “the jig is UP, and it’s our time! We done lost too much!”
This makes it all the more evident how demoralizing of a loss Mathieu was late in the season, and it’s saying a lot to him as a leader that it might have had more of in impact on the team emotionally than on the field.
Dwight Freeney’s veteran journey and skills in the kitchen
When your teammate tells you they did a project on you in middle school… 😂😂https://t.co/NpabzdJmhn #AllorNothing https://t.co/HQRybEVMkq
— NFL (@NFL) July 1, 2016
If you want someone to feel old, just do what Cardinals rookie Markus Golden did to Freeney: Tell him you did a project about him in middle school.
Freeney has been around a long time and also been very good at football during that time.
After picking up a sack on the Baltimore Ravens with left tackle Eugene Monroe blocking him, Freeney said on the sideline, “I’ve been abusing that boy since 2005.”
That doesn’t necessarily hold up, with Monroe being drafted in 2009, but he did play in the same division as Freeney for four seasons. Freeney had two sacks in that time against Monroe’s Ravens, and it’s safe to bet he got awfully close to more in that stretch.
In “All or Nothing,” we also got to see Freeney’s prowess in the kitchen. He cooked his timeless Jamaican chicken dish for the players, saying, “my mother, my grandmother drilled this recipe in my head. It’s like the first thing you learn after you learn how to walk, and then talk and then you learn how to cook.”
Alex Okafor looked at the camera after his first bite and claimed, “there’s no way he made that.”
Golden chose to praise Freeney, instead.
“Best cooking player in the NFL right there,” Golden said of Freeney.
Afterward, Freeney pulled up film of his signature spin move and talked the pass rushers through the mind games of setting up his spin.
Great food and getting some of the best advice possible for your profession? Not a bad day.
Larry Fitzgerald’s emotion
🍔 and 🏈 BOOM! Stream #AllorNothing this #FourthOfJulyWeekend, now on @AmazonVideo. https://t.co/Z6BE43M49Ohttps://t.co/pufINCrqag
— All or Nothing (@allornothingtv) July 1, 2016
Fitzgerald and Coyots captain Shane Doan may not yet have brought a championship to their Arizona franchises, but there’s no doubt whatsoever about how emotionally invested they are in their respective teams.
That showed for Fitz after his incredible performance against the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs, when he couldn’t even stand for Arians’ post-game speech and was on the verge of tears as he preached hard work heading into the NFC Championship Game.
Seeing how demoralized Fitzgerald was after the loss to the Carolina Panthers was excruciating, especially when NFL Films made sure to play back his signature highlight from Super Bowl 43, his late-game catch-and-run that appeared to be the winning touchdown.
