A new six-part documentary series, Arrow Up: Home Turf, offers an intimate look at the lives of three key BC Lions players: kicker Sean Whyte, fullback David Mackie, and defensive back T.J. Lee. Filmed during the 2024 CFL season, the series captures the ups and downs of their on and off-field experiences. From Whyte's milestones as a newly married father to Lee's grueling recovery from a second Achilles injury and Mackie's challenges of maintaining a long-distance relationship while on the road, Arrow Up provides a compelling portrait of the personal sacrifices and triumphs that come with playing professional football.
The personal lives of three key BC Lions players are revealed in a new documentary series produced by the pro football club. Debuting Monday, Jan. 20 on Youtube, the six episodes of Arrow Up: Home Turf follow Sean Whyte , T.J. Lee and David Mackie during the 2024 CFL season, when the team fell short of its goal of winning a Grey Cup at BC Place in Vancouver.
Scenes were filmed at the team's Surrey practice facility and also at the homes and gathering spots of three players who agreed to take part in the project, which offers fresh insight about life in the Canadian Football League. Nik Kowalski, the Winnipeg-raised manager of digital media for the Lions, said, “Each player we documented away from the field has a fascinating story to tell from a season for the Lions like no other. When you blend it together with the roller coaster on the field, it brings even more light to each player’s experience.' A two-minute trailer focuses on 'team clown' kicker Whyte, fitness-minded fullback Mackie and injured defensive back Lee. All three players are family guys with different stories to tell. Kowalski noted about Whyte, 'He's the hometown kicker, a very popular player from White Rock, you know, and automatic as they come on the field. He got married last winter, and then he and his wife quickly found out that they were having a baby. He's also moving, and that's in there. He has milestones on and off the field, so that's something we wanted to target.' With T.J. Lee, 'I like his story because he actually resides in Blaine, Washington, in America, but he travels every day to Canada to play football,' Kowalski said. 'He's a very important part of this team, another veteran, the heartbeat of the defence. The lead with T.J. is that he's also coming off a second Achilles recovery, so that's a big story line with him.' The Ontario-born Mackie, meanwhile, was picked for Arrow Up because he, like many CFL players, has a family that lives elsewhere during the football season. Kowalski explained, 'He has to travel across the country, leave his family, leave his wife, and I always found that intriguing about how players kind of navigate that aspect of their lives. They're football players, but they have lives too, right? Dave talks a lot about the difficulty of that, where you're pretty much in a (long-distance) relationship at that point.' On the Lions' Youtube channel, two episodes of Arrow Up will be posted Jan. 20, followed by two more on Jan. 27 and another two Feb. 3. Kowalski said, 'The timeline with that is pretty intentional because the series concludes right before free agency, so that kind of puts a bow on the 2024 CFL season, at least for us.' Whyte has signed a one-year deal to kick again for the Lions, while Lee and Mackie are on expiring contracts
BC Lions CFL Documentary Sean Whyte T.J. Lee David Mackie Football Personal Lives Grey Cup Arrow Up: Home Turf
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