It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports: ‘The Subterranean Stadium’

The Grantland Q&A: Errol Morris

It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports: ‘The Heist’

A Duke zealot recounts the night Michael Jordan’s retired North Carolina jersey was seized. This is Errol Morris’s second of six shorts for ESPN Films, about the heights a few stupid fans were willing to climb to stoke the flames of a storied rivalry.

North Carolina basketball fans are well aware of the Jordan no. 23 jersey that hangs from the rafters of the Dean Dome. But there was a time — February 1998, to be exact — when it disappeared. In The Heist, Errol Morris gets a former Duke student to re-create the theft and subsequent discovery of the sacred object. Having cased the joint, the student and three accomplices figured out a way to snatch the jumbo jersey and escalate the traditional war of pranks between the Tar Heel and Blue Devil faithfuls. Their luck ran out, though, a few weeks later, when the jersey was recovered just before they were to reveal it at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. It’s a tale that illustrates the lengths to which college hoops fans will go to stick it to an archrival.  

Visit Grantland every day this week for a new It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports short film, and for more of Errol Morris Week

Filed Under: Errol Morris Week, errol morris, ESPN Films, Video, North Carolina, North Carolina Tar Heels, Michael Jordan, It's Not Crazy It's Sports