Gene Frenette: Jaguars documentary on Tony Boselli a fitting tribute to an amazing football life

A 45-minute Tony Boselli documentary (“71”) being released this weekend as part of the Jaguars honoring their Hall of Fame offensive tackle is more about his life than his football career, and among the unsung heroes are the team employees who put it together.

This cumbersome project required a ton of editing, fleshing out intimate details through more than 15 hours of interviewing 20 people (family, friends, teammates and coaches), as well as three separate sit-down interviews with Boselli.

The Jaguars’ production team easily devoted hundreds of hours to this labor of love. They even dug into Times-Union microfilm at the Jacksonville public library to unearth nuggets from old newspaper stories, using some headlines for documentary visuals.

Gene's previous three columns:

• Back home: Maybe playing his old home course will bring spark to David Duval's game

• A week to forget: Lawrence turnovers, Jaguars defense waste chance to be special in Philly

• Staying grounded: Jaguars getting national attention, must learn how to handle the spotlight

“I think people will learn things about Tony that they didn’t know before,” said Patrick Kavanagh, coordinating producer of the documentary. “This is not just about football. There are so many good story lines with Tony.

“We could have done six hours on this [documentary] if we used everything we had. There’s a lot of stuff hitting the cutting room floor that’s good.”

Those interviewed are a “who’s who list of Jaguars’ lore,” including a final one last week with former team owner Wayne Weaver at his Riverside office. The Jaguars’ production team also flew out to Colorado to speak with Boselli’s high school coach, Sam Pagano, and sister Jennifer Wright.

Ex-Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin discusses numerous topics, including the distressing moment of walking over to Boselli’s house at Marsh Landing in early 2002, informing him the team was putting their best player on the Houston Texans’ expansion list due to salary-cap restrictions.

"One of the worst moments professionally in my life," Coughlin said. The follow-up comments from Tony ("There was a death inside me, something died") and others about that decision are incredibly riveting, in addition to the Hall of Famer dealing with the premature end of his career due to shoulder problems and surgery that was unsuccessful.

One of the most touching scenes was Boselli — 48 hours before his Hall of Fame enshrinement — being filmed in a Canton hotel room watching a video of his late father, Tony Boselli, Sr., paying tribute to his son.

Boselli couldn’t watch the video, arranged by wife Angi Boselli a week before her father-in-law passed away from melanoma in May, 2021, when it was initially revealed in February at a HOF celebration party because he wasn’t emotionally ready to give it his full attention.

There’ll be plenty of chances for Jaguars’ fans to see the documentary, starting with a screening at Daily’s Place Sunday at 11 a.m. (south end zone gates open at 10 a.m.) and it’s also available Monday on jaguars.com and YouTube.

Viewers should be impressed with the flow of the documentary, which does a nice job of balancing light-hearted moments with poignant ones. The inspiration for the film came during an HOF celebration party at USC when Tony’s son, Andrew, talked about his father's readiness to take over as the family patriarch because of the example set by his grandfather.

A big round of applause for director/editor Everett Sullivan, Kavanagh and all their colleagues who made this project a home run: Dave DeCandis, producer; Max Hochman, assistant editor; Trent Padilla, associate producer; Brian Sexton, archivist; Gabby Dalton and Thomas Flynn, camera operators; Brent Reber, field audio operator; and Eric Wierenga, title designer.

Since Boselli became the first franchise player to be elected to the Hall of Fame, the Jaguars and owner Shad Khan have gone all out to celebrate a long-awaited honor, which will conclude with Sunday’s halftime HOF ring presentation ceremony against the Texans.

Tony Boselli and his family have been on a nine-month whirlwind of enjoying all the festivities connected to his HOF induction. This documentary is a poignant cherry on top to a great career and well worth your time.

Fond Bortles remembrance

Though he never lived up to being a No. 3 overall draft pick, former Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles, who announced his retirement this week on a podcast, is a good human being who did his best to deliver success for his team and simply wasn’t good enough. No shame in that, but he took a lot of ridicule and handled it with grace.

Though a footnote in his NFL life, I was always impressed by his efforts to financially support First Responders and him stepping up to the plate to start a fund-raising campaign (raised nearly $35,000) for the family of 43-year-old Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office bailiff Cathy Adams. She was tragically killed by a drunk driver coming home from a Mandarin-Columbia High football game off I-95 in St. John’s County.

Yes, the Boat had some maturity issues during his career, but he should be remembered with a lot of positivity and for taking the Jaguars within a whisker of the 2017 Super Bowl.

In honor of Bortles’ NFL exit, can you name the Jaguars’ receivers who caught his first and last career touchdown passes, as well as the receiver who had the longest TD catch from No. 5? As a bonus, what major career accomplishment does Bortles have in common with ex-Jaguars quarterback David Garrard? Answers at the bottom.

Priority on takeaways

There are few more important advantages to winning football games than gaining an upper hand in the turnover battle, and the Jaguars’ history is a textbook example.

Starting with a 32-yard fumble return by safety Chris Hudson against the Tennessee Titans in 1997, and then safety Andre Cisco's 59-yard interception return last week against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Jaguars have scored 41 defensive touchdowns in 40 games, winning 27 of those contests.

Over the last decade, the Jaguars have lost the turnover battle nine times at an average season rate of minus-9.1, but were plus-10 in 2017 when they reached the AFC Championship game.

Of the top-5 teams over the past five years in turnover margin, 20 of 25 made the playoffs and only the 2020 and '21 Minnesota Vikings failed to have a winning season. Now you know why coaches are obsessive about ball security.

Realmuto is the real steal

One of the most accomplished MLB players year after year is Philadelphia Phillies and former Jacksonville Suns catcher J.T. Realmuto, who led the Suns to the 2014 Southern League title while also doing brief stints with the Miami Marlins.

Beyond his reliable bat (.275, 22 HR, 84 RBI) this season, Realmuto’s prowess on the bases is amazing as he was successful on all 21 steal attempts this season before finally getting thrown out Monday by Houston Astros catcher Martin Maldanado.

Realmuto, 31, is still the first catcher since first-ballot Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez in 1999 with 20 homers and 20 stolen bases in a season. When Realmuto stole three bases in a game on October 1 against the Washington Nationals, he became the first Phillies catcher to do that since Red Dooin in — wait for it — 1906.

For good measure, Realmuto has also thrown out 41.5 percent of attempted base-stealers (27 of 65) while playing more than 100 innings than any other MLB catcher. Realmuto, whose Phillies square off against the St. Louis Cardinals in an NL wild-card playoff, is the best catcher in baseball and is earning every penny of that five-year, $115.5 million contract the Phillies gave him before the 2021 season.

Bortles trivia answers

The first receiver to catch a touchdown pass from Bortles was Allen Hurns (63 yards) in a 44-17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in 2014 at TIAA Bank Field. The last receiver to catch a TD pass from Bortles was Dede Westbrook (13 yards) in a 24-21 road loss to the Buffalo Bills in 2018. The longest TD pass by Bortles was 90 yards to Allen Robinson in a 38-27 road loss to the New Orleans Saints in 2015.

A decade apart, Bortles (2017) and Garrard (2007) became the only quarterbacks in NFL history to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road in both the regular season and the playoffs, as well as the only drafted Jaguars quarterbacks to be rewarded with a second contract.

Pigskin forecast

Jaguars over Houston Texans by 11 (exorcisms); Washington Commanders over Tennessee Titans by 3 (Jaguars thank-you notes); Tampa Bay Buccaneers over Atlanta Falcons by 4 (Tom Brady exit strategies); Florida over Missouri by 10 (Georgia hangovers); North Carolina State over Florida State by 1 (crazy finish); Miami over North Carolina by 1 (bye week reset); Georgia over Auburn by 14 (Todd Monken adjustments); Alabama over Texas A&M by 17 (long memories). Last week: 4 right, 3 Russell Wilson alarm bells.

Gene Frenette Sports columnist at Florida Times-Union, follow him on Twitter @genefrenette

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars documentary on Tony Boselli a fitting tribute to Hall of Famer