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Caught up on the Derek Jeter documentary this weekend. It's outstanding if you love retrospective sports documentaries like I do. However much as I felt during his playing career, I still find Derek Jeter the person off the field wholly unexciting & rather dull as a character study worthy of a 6 hour documentary. By his own admission, his image & persona appear to be intentionally crafted & managed. Much like Jordan & Tiger, that which makes them "great" as athletes, namely their respective hyper-focus & competitiveness, makes them, to me, appear rather petty & trite about minor perceived slights. Whatever internal insecurities (overbearing & competitive Dads?) drives these guys to be so competitive & hyper-focused on "winning," is exactly what makes them seem so petty, trite & selfish off the field as coddled athletes (see it laid-bare in Jordan's HOF speech). For a guy so seemingly hyper-focused on the field, I found it quite ironic that in discussing the 9th inning of Game 7 of the 2001 WS when the Yankees were up 2-1, by his own admission Jeter was thinking about what he was going to say to the media. And in a further twist of irony, I found A-Rod, the here-to-fore poster boy for selfishness & phoniness, to be to be far more humbled & real after his fall from grace than Derek Jeter and the carefully cultivated character role which he played & continues to play.