Matt Naylor always knew he was adopted.

You didn’t have to look further than the family portraits in the Naylor’s Addison, Ala., home, located some 80 miles north of Tuscaloosa, to figure that out. At age 17, Naylor’s parents dropped a bombshell on him: late Crimson Tide legend Derrick Thomas was his paternal father.

The SEC Network unveiled its latest documentary in its SEC Storied series on Sept. 29, in conjunction with ESPN. “In Search of Derrick Thomas,” directed by Joe Levine, follows Naylor as he learns the about the father he never knew via visits with family and trips to Tuscaloosa, to his father’s College Football Hall of Fame Induction and as he literally “follows in his daddy’s footprints” at Denny Chimes.

The moment at Denny Chimes — and journey leading up to placing his hands inside his father’s in the hallowed cement — parallels the similar course Derrick Thomas traversed as a young adult in search of answers about his own father.

We follow Naylor as he discovers his father’s roots. Thomas grew up without a father after Robert Thomas, a standout track and field star in high school, was shot down and disappeared during the Vietnam War. Derrick was in and out of trouble his entire childhood, before being sent to the Dade Marine Institute for troubled youths. Having turned his life around, Thomas began playing high school football … on the offensive side of the ball, and not very well. Coaches switched him to linebacker for his senior year and, well, let’s just say that a year later, Thomas was starting along Cornelius Bennett at linebacker for the University of Alabama.

The documentary continues with a detailed look at Thomas’ brilliant college career, his quick rise in the NFL and punches you in the gut at the end with his tragic death at age 33 from an automobile accident — detailed painfully by his mother Edith Thomas, who held her son in her arms as he passed away days later at home.

Former teammates and coaches such as Sylvester Croom, Bill Curry, Howard Cross and Stacie Harrison, as well as Bennett, provide personal stories of Thomas. They depict a stubborn, affable man who could be as determined as he could be aloof. They recall Thomas and his million-dollar smile, his arrogance and his propensity for speeding (36 speeding tickets in four states during college) and always being late — both of which Thomas was doing the morning he died.

The hour-long film’s true thread are the interviews and tales from Naylor and Thomas’ family members and friends, such as Robert Certain, the director of the Dade Marine Institute. One powerful story reveals a late-night call from Thomas who wanted to quit as a freshman after being embarrassed on the field by the upperclassman Bennett. By the end of the call, Thomas signs a contract with himself that reads: “I, Derrick Thomas promise when I graduate from the University of Alabama, Cornelius Bennett’s name will not be on any of the record books. – Derrick Thomas.”

Bennett doesn’t sit atop any of the Tide’s all-time leaderboards.

Naylor documents his own journey as the story’s narrator, in a role done in past SEC Storied documentaries by big-name actors such as Dennis Quad. Naylor’s oration feels scripted and wooden at times, but it provides an authentic, personal feel that works to paint a humble picture of a young man trying to find his roots, the same way his father did before him.