ESPN Films will premiere 14 Days in Gainesville, a new 30 for 30 documentary, on Tuesday, September 15 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN and the ESPN App. Directed by Daniel B. Levin and produced by MY Entertainment, the film returns to the fall of 1990, when Steve Spurrier’s arrival as Florida’s head coach collided with the murders of five students in the days before the season opener.
Spurrier came back to Gainesville already tied to the university. He won the Heisman Trophy as the Gators’ quarterback in 1966 before a career in professional football and coaching, and his return as head coach generated immediate excitement around a program that had never claimed an official SEC championship. The film uses that anticipation as its starting point and then follows what happened to it.
A Season Opener In A Town Under Siege
Between August 24 and 27, 1990, five students were killed in three separate break-ins near campus. Four attended the University of Florida and one attended Santa Fe Community College. Classes were disrupted, hundreds of students left town, and a community that would normally be counting down to kickoff instead faced fear and a killer still at large.
Danny Rolling, a drifter from Shreveport, Louisiana, was arrested on an unrelated charge weeks later and was not charged in the killings until November 1991. He pleaded guilty in 1994 and was executed in 2006.
ESPN’s description says the documentary examines how a football program preparing for a new era became intertwined with a community confronting an unthinkable tragedy, and how football existed alongside the grief without erasing it. Spurrier appears on camera, along with members of the 1990 Gators, journalists, university leaders, law enforcement officials and Gainesville residents who lived through the two weeks.
“14 Days in Gainesville is more than just a college football film,” executive producer Joe Townley said. “It’s the powerful story of a community confronting unimaginable tragedy and how, in the midst of fear and grief, a football team helped bring people together and helped a community begin to heal.”
Where It Fits In 30 For 30
The 30 for 30 series has produced more than 100 films since it debuted in 2009, and its shelf includes the Academy Award winner O.J.: Made in America and the Peabody winner The Two Escobars. Films from the series stream on ESPN+ and, for bundle subscribers, on Disney+ and Hulu, so 14 Days in Gainesville will reach the Disney+ library after its ESPN premiere.
The premiere lands in a heavy week for the network. ESPN opens its first season as a Super Bowl broadcaster with Broncos-Chiefs on Monday Night Football the night before, and its ManningCast returns for a sixth season on ESPN2. A 30 for 30 airing on a Tuesday night keeps the film clear of both.
Florida’s 1990 season, Spurrier’s first, finished 9-2 with the SEC’s best conference record at 6-1, though the Gators were ineligible for the title and for a bowl that year because of NCAA probation from the previous staff. He would win six SEC championships and the 1996 national title before leaving for the NFL after the 2001 season. The documentary stops well short of that, staying inside the two weeks its title names.
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