Alfred University alumnus Trent Cooper ’93, eight-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, directed a docuseries celebrating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 50th season in the National Football League.
“Raise The Flags: 50 Years of Buccaneers Football” debuted on Dec. 11, streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. The film, which has been nominated for a 2026 Emmy (Outstanding Sports Camera Work – Long Form), will also run on NFL Network this summer. The series, commissioned and produced by Buccaneers’ co-owner Ed Glazer, is described on the NFL website as “a wide-ranging portrait of the Buccaneers organization, tracing its path from humble beginnings to championship heights.” Presented by Skydance Sports and Prime Video Sports, “Raise the Flags” is viewed as the most complete account of the Buccaneers history ever produced.
Cooper, who earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Alfred University in 1993, is an independent sports documentary director and showrunner known for his award-winning work on high-profile sports documentaries and character-driven storytelling. For “Raise the Flags,” he led a production team that conducted 100 interviews with current and former players, coaches, executives, staff, media personalities and more. First-hand accounts are supported by archival footage and historical recordings that provide a detailed look at the franchise's fifty years of evolution.
"I grew up in the Tampa Bay area and have loved the Bucs my entire life, but storytelling is my job, and this story has it all: grit, heartbreak, community, unforgettable characters and more," Cooper commented in a piece on nfl.com announcing the film’s release. "The best part of this project for me has been going deep into the rise of this franchise and uncovering stories even lifelong fans never knew."
Trent Cooper ’93, shown here on the Alfred University campus in 2017 during a screening of his Emmy-nominated documentary, “Us Against The World.” Cooper, an eight-time Emmy-winning filmmaker, directed “Raise The Flags: 50 Years of Buccaneers Football,” a documentary celebrating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 50th season in the NFL.
Cooper was a director and showrunner for the Melissa Stark-hosted NFL 360 from 2018-2024. He directed multiple Emmy-winning features and documentaries including "NFL 360: Heroes" (2024, Outstanding Short Feature); "NFL 360: Who If Not Us" (2023, Outstanding Interactive Experience - Original Programming); The Indelible Legacy of Jimmy Raye (2023, Outstanding Edited Sports Special); “NFL 360: Searching for the Summit” (2022, Outstanding Short Documentary); “Through the Ashes (2022, Outstanding Long Feature); “NFL 360: The Gift Of Gaba" (2021, Outstanding Long Feature); "NFL 360:I Am Shaquem Griffin" (2019, Outstanding Short Feature); and “All of Nothing: A Season with the Arizona Cardinals (2017, Outstanding Serialized Sports Documentary).
From 2015-2021, Cooper was an independent filmmaker for UPROXX Studios. He produced the documentary "For Walter & Josiah" (2022, directed by Jamie Elias) centering on a high school basketball team in the throes of a teen suicide epidemic on a Native reservation in Montana. The film was named winner of Portland Film Festival and Florida Film Festival. He also directed "Us Against The World" (2019), an Emmy-nominated documentary series on a Black high school basketball coach in rural Kentucky who was fired by a racist school board days after leading an underdog school to its first state championship. Cooper also directed a three-part mini-doc series on the early days of Guns N' Roses.